Chronic wasting disease is a progressively fatal, horizontally transmissible prion disease affecting several members of the cervid species. Conventional diagnosis relies on ELISA or IHC evaluation using tissues collected post-mortem; however, recent research has focused on newly developed amplification techniques using samples collected antemortem. The present study sought to cross-validate the real-time quaking-induced conversion assay (RT-QuIC) evaluation of rectal biopsies collected from an elk herd with endemic CWD, assessing both binary positive/negative test results as well as relative rates of amplification between laboratories. We found that results were correlative in both categories across all laboratories performing RT-QuIC, as well as to conventional IHC performed at a national reference laboratory. A significantly higher number of positive samples were identified using RT-QuIC, with results seemingly unhindered by low follicle counts. These findings support the continued development and implementation of amplification assays in the diagnosis of prion diseases of veterinary importance, targeting not just antemortem sampling strategies, but post-mortem testing approaches as well.

中文翻译：

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用于麋鹿慢性消耗性疾病生前检测的 RT-QuIC 检测的交叉验证。

慢性消耗性疾病是一种逐渐致命的、可水平传播的朊病毒病，影响鹿科的多个成员。传统诊断依赖于使用死后收集的组织进行 ELISA 或 IHC 评估；然而，最近的研究集中在新开发的放大技术上，使用收集的生前样本。本研究旨在交叉验证从患有地方性 CWD 的麋鹿群中收集的直肠活检的实时震动诱导转化测定 (RT-QuIC) 评估，评估二元阳性/阴性测试结果以及相对扩增率实验室之间。我们发现，在所有执行 RT-QuIC 的实验室以及在国家参考实验室执行的常规 IHC 中，结果在两个类别中都是相关的。使用 RT-QuIC 鉴定出明显更多的阳性样本，结果似乎不受卵泡计数低的影响。这些发现支持在诊断具有兽医重要性的朊病毒疾病中继续开发和实施扩增试验，不仅针对生前取样策略，还针对死后检测方法。