A farewell to outgoing Editor-in-Chief Michel Brémont

International audienceNo abstract availabl

A farewell to outgoing Editor-in-Chief Michel Brémont

International audienceNo abstract availabl

Transmission of Atypical Bovine Prions to Mice Transgenic for Human Prion Protein

To assess risk for cattle-to-human transmission of prions that cause uncommon forms of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), we inoculated mice expressing human PrP Met129 with field isolates. Unlike classical BSE agent, L-type prions appeared to propagate in these mice with no obvious transmission barrier. H-type prions failed to infect the mice

Atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies, France, 2001–2007

In France, through exhaustive active surveillance, ≈17.1 million adult cattle were tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy from July 2001 through July 2007; ≈3.6 million were >8 years of age. Our retrospective Western blot study of all 645 confirmed cases found that 7 were H-type and 6 were L-type

Siradjouba, laboratoire de la gestion des frontières par le Mali

Le village malien de Siradjouba se situe dans la région historique et culturelle du Wassoulou, à cheval sur le Mali et la Guinée, à environ 250 km au sud de Bamako, au cœur d’une région d’exploitation aurifère et d’orpaillage artisanal. Il a attiré mon attention par la récurrence de litiges l’opposant aux localités voisines de Guinée depuis un siècle. L’objectif ici est de confronter l’administration de cet espace frontalier périphérique aux politiques territoriales menées par le Mali depuis son indépendance. Deux périodes sont privilégiées : les années qui suivent l’indépendance du Mali, temps de construction nationale, et depuis 1995, quand le Mali conçoit et promeut le concept de « pays-frontières ».The Malian village of Siradjouba is located in the historical and cultural region of Wassoulou that is straddling Mali and Guinea, and about 250 km south of Bamako, in the heart of an artisanal gold mining area. What came under my attention is the recurring disputes between Siradjouba and Guinean neighbouring places over the last century. My purpose is to observe the administration of this peripheral borderland in light of the territorial policies conducted by the Malian State since its national independence. My paper will focus on two periods: the years after independence, time of national building, and the period since 1995, when Mali has designed and promoted the concept of “pays-frontières”

Phenotypic Similarity of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy in Cattle and L-type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in a Mouse Model

L-type BSE is a more likely candidate for the origin of TME than typical BSE

The prion or the related Shadoo protein is required for early mouse embryogenesis

AbstractThe prion protein PrP has a key role in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies but its biological function remains largely unknown. Recently, a related protein, Shadoo, was discovered. Its biological properties and brain distribution partially overlap that of PrP. We report that the Shadoo-encoding gene knockdown in PrP-knockout mouse embryos results in a lethal phenotype, occurring between E8 and E11, not observed on the wild-type genetic background. It reveals that these two proteins play a shared, crucial role in mammalian embryogenesis, explaining the lack of severe phenotype in PrP-knockout mammals, an appreciable step towards deciphering the biological role of this protein family

Isolation from Cattle of a Prion Strain Distinct from That Causing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

To date, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human counterpart, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have been associated with a single prion strain. This strain is characterised by a unique and remarkably stable biochemical profile of abnormal protease-resistant prion protein (PrP(res)) isolated from brains of affected animals or humans. However, alternate PrP(res) signatures in cattle have recently been discovered through large-scale screening. To test whether these also represent separate prion strains, we inoculated French cattle isolates characterised by a PrP(res) of higher apparent molecular mass—called H-type—into transgenic mice expressing bovine or ovine PrP. All mice developed neurological symptoms and succumbed to these isolates, showing that these represent a novel strain of infectious prions. Importantly, this agent exhibited strain-specific features clearly distinct from that of BSE agent inoculated to the same mice, which were retained on further passage. Moreover, it also differed from all sheep scrapie isolates passaged so far in ovine PrP-expressing mice. Our findings therefore raise the possibility that either various prion strains may exist in cattle, or that the BSE agent has undergone divergent evolution in some animals

Issues and special features of animal health research

In the rapidly changing context of research on animal health, INRA launched a collective discussion on the challenges facing the field, its distinguishing features, and synergies with biomedical research. As has been declared forcibly by the heads of WHO, FAO and OIE, the challenges facing animal health, beyond diseases transmissible to humans, are critically important and involve food security, agriculture economics, and the ensemble of economic activities associated with agriculture. There are in addition issues related to public health (zoonoses, xenobiotics, antimicrobial resistance), the environment, and animal welfare