Immunolocalization of scrapie amyloid (PrP27-30) in chronic wasting disease of Rocky Mountain elk and hybrids of captive mule deer and white-tailed deer.

Scrapie amyloid-immunoreactive plaques are present in brain tissues of captive mule deer with chronic wasting disease (CWD), a progressive neurological disorder characterized neuropathologically by widespread spongiform change of the neuropil, intracytoplasmic vacuolation in neuronal perikarya and astrocytic hypertrophy and hyperplasia. We report here the immunolocalization of scrapie amyloid (PrP27-30) in plaques observed in brain tissues of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) and hybrids of mule deer and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) naturally affected with CWD. Similar findings have been shown in kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and Gerstmann-Sträussler syndrome in humans. Our data corroborate that CWD in Rocky Mountain elk and hybrids of mule deer and white-tailed deer belongs to the subacute spongiform virus encephalopathies (transmissible cerebral amyloidoses).