Search

To examine the sensitivity of a commercially available bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( BSE) kit ( NippIBL) for the detection of ovine scrapie, 50 scrapie-positive ovine samples from the UK, and 54 scrapie-negative ovine samples from Japan were obtain and tested using this kit. The sensitivity and specificity of NippIBL for ovine samples were 96% and 100%, respectively. The detection limit of the abnormal isoform of prion protein ( PrPSc) of NippIBL was examined using diluted scrapie-positive samples. The sensitivity of NippIBL to ovine scrapie was 3-10 times superior to that of another commercial BSE diagnosis kit. Thus, the NippIBL kit proved more effective for the detection of ovine scrapie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]