Aerosols

Laboratory activities involving transmissible spongiform encephalopathy causing agents

“…However, experimental transmission has been routinely achieved via intraperitoneal and intravenous injection of prion infected material. Transmission was reported to be effective by intralingual, intranerval, conjuntival, and nasal cavity inoculations 39 . Prion tissue distribution in cattle remains essentially restricted to the CNS, cattle have no evidence of a lymphoid or blood phase of PrP sc .…”

“…Besides this principal route of transmission prion potential to transmit experimentally has been shown to occur by different routes. In particular scrapie aerosol transmission has been achieved experimentally in mice 39 , 40 . In cervids, CWD was already proposed as a natural airborne pathogen 41 .…”

“…Recent data on animal experiments suggest potential contamination with prions through the inhalation route and may question L3-BSE containment for diagnostic activities involving animals (bioassays) 39 - 41 . More studies are needed to understand how prion can infect a host by inhalation in laboratory conditions in order to define if a proper containment level 3 will also be required for diagnostic activities.…”

“…Transmission was reported to be effective by intralingual, intranerval, conjuntival, and nasal cavity inoculations. 39 Prion tissue distribution in cattle remains essentially restricted to the CNS, cattle have no evidence of a lymphoid or blood phase of PrP sc . This is fundamentally different from TSEs in sheep, cervids or mice, and vCJD in human.…”

“…In addition, CWD prion has been found in water in the natural environment in an endemic area. 39 , 42 Infectivity has not yet been demonstrated in milk and blood of cattle with natural or experimental BSE. 17 In the case of CJD, there is no evidence of release of prion into aerosols.…”