@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.021311-0, author = "Tabouret, Guillaume and Lacroux, Caroline and Lugan, Séverine and Costes, Pierrette and Corbière, Fabien and Weisbecker, Jean Louis and Schelcher, François and Andréoletti, Olivier", title = "Relevance of oral experimental challenge with classical scrapie in sheep", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "2010", volume = "91", number = "8", pages = "2139-2144", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.021311-0", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.021311-0", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "Oral inoculation is currently considered as the best approach to mimic natural TSE contamination in ruminants. In this study, we compared the timing of abnormal prion protein (PrPSc) dissemination and accumulation in the organism of susceptible sheep either orally inoculated or naturally infected with classical scrapie. Both animal groups shared a similar PrPSc dissemination scheme and accumulation dynamics in lymphoid tissues. However, orally challenged animals displayed an earlier neuro-invasion and a dramatically shorter incubation period than naturally exposed sheep. No differences were observed between the groups with regards to the neuro-invasion route. These results unambiguously indicate that oral inoculation can have an impact on both the earliness of neuro-invasion and the incubation period. They also support the statement that oral inoculation is a relevant model for investigating transmissible spongiform encephalopathy pathogenesis. Nevertheless, data obtained under such experimental conditions should be used with some caution.", }