NIAID-Funded Study Finds Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in Elk Antler Velvet
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| A new study finds CWD prions in elk antler velvet. |
Scientists have found chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions in the vascular skin that sheds off antlers of mature male elk, known as velvet. Antler velvet has been an ingredient in traditional Asian medicine for centuries. People are prescribed antler velvet for a variety of ailments including impotence, arthritis and high blood pressure.
CWD is a part of a group of fatal prion diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) that attack the brain and central nervous system of certain animals and humans. Elk, moose and deer (cervids) acquire CWD through direct animal-to-animal contact or through indirect exposure to prions found in food and water supplies, suggesting shedding of prions may be a significant source of environmental contamination. The efficiency of CWD transmission, combined with the high density of cervids in some areas of North America, make CWD difficult to control.
In addition to CWD, other members of the TSE family are bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as mad cow disease) in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in humans. There have been no verified cases of humans contracting CWD, but the appearance of CJD in humans exposed to mad cow disease, and the discovery of CWD prions in the skeletal muscle of deer, have made the human infection of CWD prions a concern.
NIAID grantee Edward A. Hoover, Ph.D., Colorado State University, focuses on the transmission, shedding and detection of CWD prions and the development of experimental vaccinations for prion infections. In this study, he and his colleagues used a CWD-susceptible transgenic mouse model, injecting the mice with samples of antler velvet and brain samples from four elk infected with CWD prions. The results of their study showed low, but detectable, amounts of CWD prions in antler velvet from two of four elk.
The authors summarize (a) the shedding of antler velvet is a previously unrecognized source of CWD prions into the environment and may play a role in disease transmission among members of cervids; and (b) antler velvet use as a worldwide health supplement represents a form of human exposure to CWD prions. Further studies to determine how this exposure might affect the transmission of CWD to humans needed.
RC Angers et al. Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in Elk Antler Velvet. Emerging Infectious Diseases. DOI: 10.30201/eid1505.081458 (2009).
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