Study of CWD Deer and Elk Prion Disease in Nonhuman Prim

这项研究旨在评估鹿或麋鹿的慢性消耗性疾病（一种朊病毒疾病）可能传染给人类的可能性。人类似乎容易感染牛朊病毒病，牛海绵状脑病（疯牛病），这一发现加剧了人们的担忧。为了研究CWD跨物种传播的可能性，两种非人灵长类动物，松鼠猴和食蟹猴，经口或脑内感染来自CWD受影响的鹿或麋鹿的脑材料。感染后三年，脑内感染的松鼠猴出现了临床神经症状，并通过脑生化和病理学检测证实患有朊病毒病。对剩余猴子的观察至少还要持续几年

This study is aimed at evaluating the potential that chronic wasting disease, a prion disease of deer or elk, might be transmissible to humans. This concern is amplified by the finding that humans appear to be susceptible to infection by a cattle prion disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disase). To study the possibility of cross-species transmission of CWD, two species of nonhuman primates, squirrel monkeys and cynomologus macaques, were infected orally or intracerebrally with brain material derived from CWD affected deer or elk. Three years after infection intracerebrally infected squirrel monkeys developed clinical neurological signs and were confirmed by biochemical and pathological testing of brain to have a prion disease. Observations on the remaining monkeys will continue for at least a few more years