Eye Test for Neurological Diseases in Livestock Developed
Date: 19.11.2010
The eyes of sheep infected with scrapie -- a neurological disorder similar to mad cow disease -- return an intense, almost-white glow when they're hit with blue excitation light, according to a research project led by Iowa State University's Jacob Petrich.
The findings suggest technologies and techniques can be developed to quickly and noninvasively test for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, progressive and fatal neurological diseases such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Petrich, in fact, is working to develop a testing device.
Original Paper:
Ramkrishna Adhikary, Prasun Mukherjee, Govindarajan Krishnamoorthy, Robert A. Kunkle, Thomas A. Casey, Mark A. Rasmussen, Jacob W. Petrich. Fluorescence Spectroscopy of the Retina for Diagnosis of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. Analytical Chemistry, 2010; 82 (10): 4097 DOI: 10.1021/ac100179u
Source:
http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2010/oct/TSEtest
