Diagnosis

Currently there is no test available to diagnose BSE in a live animal or within meat. BSE causes no gross lesions. Diagnosis is based on microscopic examination (left) of the brainstem at the obex (middle) and/or detection of the abnormal prion protein by immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, or ELISA.

TSEs cause a triad of histological lesions (right) including 1) spongiform change within the gray matter, 2) neuronal degeneration and necrosis, including vacuolation of the neuronal cell bodies, and 3) astrocytosis.