This disease was known since the 18th century, but till the 60s that scientists began to suspect that it wasn’t a typical disease, self-replicating outside of the usual means of nucleic acids. This fatal and infectious disease is none other than scrapie, which cause horrible symptoms on animals it infect before death. If you are curious about how the name of scrapie come about, continue to read on….. The name of the disease came from the disturbing behaviour of infected sheep, to scrape off their fleece against rocks. It is quite saddening if you try to visualise yourself in the picture of this happening, witnessing the whole entire process.
Scrapie causes a degeneration of the central nervous system which eventually results in a variety of behavioral, locomotive changes and death. Sad to say that up till today, there is still neither cure nor treatment. In other words, the cruelty of this killing will continue to happen on any innocent sheep or goat.
An agent that is smaller than a virus causes scrapie. It is either a protein called a prion or another substance closely associated with the prion protein. Scientists still have many to learning about the scrapie agent and exactly how it works. It is known that the scrapie agent is extremely resistant to heat as well to normal sterilization processes. Besides that, it does not evoke any detectable immune response or inflammatory reactions in host animals. The incubation period is usually two to five years. Ultimately, the scrapie agent attacks the brain, leaving holes in it much like swiss cheese or a sponge, hence the name spongiform encephalopathy.
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