Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Incidence Of Genotypes At Codon 171 Of The Prion Protein Gene (Prnp) In Five Breeds Of Sheep And Production Traits Of Ewes Associated With Those Genotypes, B. M. Alexander, R. H. Stobart, W. C. Russell, Katherine I. O'Rourke, G. S. Lewis, J. R. Logan, J. V. Duncan, G. E. Moss

Other Publications in Zoonotics and Wildlife Disease

Scrapie is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies of livestock. Disease susceptibility is linked to polymorphisms in the normal prion protein gene that encodes the mammalian prion precursor. Codon 171 of this gene is a major determinant of scrapie susceptibility. Selection for arginine (R) at codon 171 is encouraged by the USDA to decrease the incidence of scrapie. Objectives of this study were to determine the frequency of R allele variants at codon 171 in a sample of sheep from five breeds (Columbia, Hampshire, Rambouillet, Suffolk, and Targhee) and western white-faced commercial ewes and to determine whether the R allele …