- PARIS (Reuters) - At least 20 lemurs, a type of primate, living in
three different French zoos have been found to be infected with the same
infectious agent that causes "mad cow disease," or bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE).
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- The animals' diets included 15% beef
protein produced by a company in the UK, suggesting that their feed was
infected with the prion that causes BSE from slaughtered cattle, according
to the report in the March 30th issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
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- Previously, Dr. Noelle Bons of the Universite
Montpellier II and colleagues reported that a monkey and two lemurs had
died of spongiform encephalopathy at the Montpellier zoo. To investigate
further, the team studied 18 more lemurs from zoos in Besancon and Strasbourg.,
and autopsies of the lemurs showed the presence of the prions in all the
animals.
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- Prions are an abnormal form of a naturally
occurring protein, which is thought to cause neurological degeneration
and ultimately death in animals exposed to the mutant protein. According
to the report, it appears that prions are taken up by cells lining the
digestive tract, and then travel along nerve pathways to the brain.
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- The investigators report that prions
were found in the animals' digestive tracts, spleens, and in some cases
their brains. Certain animals also had brain lesions characteristic of
prion disease.
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- Bons and colleagues conclude that "BSE
contamination of zoo animals may have been more widespread than is generally
appreciated."
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- SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences USA 1999;96:4046-4051.
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