Transgenic animals and prion diseases: hypotheses, risks, regulations and policies

Authors: Wills PR
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 44, Issue 1, pp 33-36, Feb 1996
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock
Subject Terms: Biosecurity, Genetics, Legal/regulation, Nervous system/neurology, Nutrition/metabolism, Spongiform encephalopathies, Disease/defect, Protein, Risk assessment/factors
Article class: Correspondence

---

Abstract: In his reply to my letter about transgenic animals and prion diseases the Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Barry O`Neil, raised several issues of science and policy that require a more detailed response. Debate about the status of prions as infectious agents devoid of nucleic acid seems to be over. The “unified theory” of Weissmann was a last-ditch attempt to postulate the existence of a nucleic acid (a “co-priori”) in the agent, but the theory was ill-conceived and since it was put forward a range of experiments have refuted the need for co-prions. In any case, reasonably sophisticated theories of prion replication are quite capable of dealing with the problem of strain specificity which the hypothetical nucleic acid is designed to solve…

---