2000 Volume 52 Issue 6 Pages 242-244
The present study dealt with the pathology of natural scrapie in Japanese Suffolk sheep in a certain selected area. Vacuolations in the cytoplasm of neurons were conspicuous. They were particularly evident in many areas of the medulla and pons, extending into and through pedunculus cerebri and thalamus to the septal area and olfactory tubercle. Proliferation of astrocytes was also easily observed with glial fibrillary acidic protein staining. Neural vacuolations in the cerebral cortex were observed in 73% of the cases. Abnormal prion protein deposits were seen in all cases observed by hydrolytic autoclaving, and subsequent peroxidase and anti-peroxidase immunostaining. Abnormal prion protein staining was the most conspicuous in the polymorphic layers of the hippocampus.
