Prevalence of Variant CJD–Related Prion Protein in the U.K.

Although the incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in animals — and of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans who ate infected meat — has decreased markedly in the U.K. since 2000, concern remains that new cases might occur. The incubation period for vCJD is measured in decades, and previous sampling of surgically removed appendixes yielded estimates that >10,000 people might be incubating the disease.

In the current study, 63,007 pairs of tonsils removed between 2004 and 2008 at hospitals throughout England and Scotland were assessed for the presence of CJD-related prion protein (PrP^CJD). Two complementary enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) were used, with positive or equivocal results confirmed by immunoblotting and immun…