Sludge Watch ==> Spiroplasma infection, rather than prions, may cause TSE

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludge Watch Word of the Day:   SPIROPLASMA

Spiroplasma is a type of small bacteria without cell walls.

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiroplasma


and also see the story on how Spiroplasma may cause Creutzfeldt Jacob 
Disease (human version of 'mad cow')

http://www.infectiousdiseasenews.com/199606/frameset.asp?article=cjd.asp


Do scientists ever check sewage sludge and effluents for these tiny 
bacteria?
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Spiroplasma spp. from transmissible spongiform encephalopathy brains or 
ticks induce spongiform encephalopathy in ruminants

J Med Microbiol 56 (2007), 1235-1242; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.47159-0
© 2007 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

Spiroplasma spp. from transmissible spongiform encephalopathy brains or
ticks induce spongiform encephalopathy in ruminants

Frank O. Bastian1, Dearl E. Sanders2, Will A. Forbes2, Sue D. Hagius1, Joel
V. Walker1, William G. Henk3, Fred M. Enright1 and Philip H. Elzer1
1 Department of Veterinary Science, Louisiana State University Agricultural
Center, 111 Dalrymple Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

2 Idlewild Research Station, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center,
Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

3 Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Louisiana State University
School of Veterinary Medicine, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Correspondence
Frank O. Bastian
fbastian at agcenter.lsu.edu

Received 10 January 2007
Accepted 19 April 2007




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Spiroplasma, small motile wall-less bacteria, are linked by molecular and
serological studies to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs),
which include scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans. In this study, two experiments were
undertaken to determine the role of spiroplasma in the pathogenesis of TSE.
In experiment 1, Spiroplasma mirum, a rabbit tick isolate that had
previously been shown to experimentally induce spongiform encephalopathy in
rodents, was inoculated intracranially (IC) into ruminants. S.
mirum-inoculated deer manifested clinical signs of TSE after 1.5 to 5.5
months incubation.

The deer, as well as sheep and goats, inoculated with S.
mirum developed spongiform encephalopathy in a dose-dependent manner. In
experiment 2, spiroplasma closely related to S. mirum were isolated from
TSE-affected brains via passage in embryonated eggs, and propagated in
cell-free M1D media. Spiroplasma spp. isolates from scrapie-affected sheep
brain and from CWD-affected deer brain inoculated IC into sheep and goats
induced spongiform encephalopathy closely resembling natural TSE in these
animals.

These data show spiroplasma to be consistently associated with TSE,
and able experimentally to cause TSE in ruminant animal models, therein
questioning the validity of studies that have concluded the prion, a
miss-folded protease-resistant protein that builds up in TSE brains during
the course of the disease, to be the sole causal agent. The spiroplasma
infection models reported here will be important for investigating factors
involved in the pathogenesis of TSE since ruminants are the natural hosts.


http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/9/1235


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