Experimentally induced bovine spongiform encephalopathy did not transmit via goat embryos

J Foster, W McKelvey, H Fraser, A Chong, A Ross, D Parnham, W Goldmann and N Hunter Institute for Animal Health, BBSRC Neuropathogenesis Unit, Edinburgh, UK. Jim.Foster@BBSRC.AC.UK Goats are susceptible to experimental challenge with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This study set out to investigate whether the transmission of BSE could occur in goats following the transfer of embryos from experimentally infected donor females into uninfected recipient females. The results showed no evidence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy disease in any of the offspring which developed from embryos from infected donors, nor indeed in any of the recipient females used as surrogate dams. In addition, there was no indication of experimental BSE spreading as either a venereal infection to males used in mating or by maternal transmission to offspring born naturally to experimentally infected donors, although numbers were small.