EPIDEMIOLOGIC OBSERVATIONS ON SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES IN CAPTIVE WILD ANIMALS IN THE BRITISH-ISLES

Since 1986, scrapie-like spongiform encephalopathy has been diagnosed in 19 captive wild animals of eight species at or from eight zoologica l collections in the British Isles. The affected animals have comprise d members of the family Bovidae: one nyala (Tragelaphus angasi), four eland (Taurotragus oryx), and six greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsicer os), one gemsbok (Oryx gazella), one Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), and one scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah), and members of the family Fel idae: four cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and one puma (Felis concolor). T n addition, three cases of a spongiform encephalopathy of unknown aeti ology have been reported in ostriches (Struthio camellus) from two toe s in north west Germany. Three features suggest that some of these cas es may have been caused by the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopat hy (BSE). First, they have been temporally and geographically coincide nt with the BSE epidemic. Secondly, in all the ungulates for which det ails are available, it is possible that either the affected animal its elf, or the herd into which it was born or moved, had been exposed to proprietary feeds containing ruminant-derived protein or other potenti ally contaminated material, and all the carnivores had been fed parts of cattle carcases judged unfit for human consumption. Thirdly, the pa thological results of inoculating mice with a homogenate of fixed brai n tissue from the nyala and from one greater kudu were similar to the results of inoculating mice with BSE brain tissue.