Published by Australian Academy of Science
Useful sites | Prions – morphing agents of disease

Mad cow disease: The BSE epidemic in Great Britain (Access Excellence, USA)

An interview with Dr Frederick Murphy which provides a good overview of the BSE epidemic in Great Britain. Includes an explanation of prions, current research priorities and possible future treatments for prion-related encephalopathies.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/madcow96.html

Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

• How Australia will respond to our first case of vCJD: A guide for the public
  Describes precautionary measures already in place and summarises how the government plans to respond to the threat of BSE or vCJD in Australia.
  http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-bse-pdf-public-cnt.htm/$FILE/public.pdf

• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Australian surveillance update to 31 December 2004
  http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-cdi2903d.htm

• Australia's health response
  http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-bse-response.htm

• Chronology of events and responses
  http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/phd-bse-chronology.htm

BSE and imported beef products (Food Standards Australia and New Zealand)

Provides answers to questions about BSE.
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/newsroom/factsheets/factsheets2001/bseandimportedbeefpr263.cfm

The emerging European epidemic of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy: Lessons for Australia (Medical Journal of Australia, 2001)

According to Professor Colin Masters, Australia needs to ensure that precautions to minimise the risk of BSE are implemented and communicated to the public.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/174_04_190201/masters/masters.html

An interview with Professor Michael Alpers about research suggesting that the practice of cannabalism was more widespread that previously thought.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s938896.htm

Prions: Puzzling infectious proteins (National Institutes of Health, USA)

Shows four levels of protein structure to explain how prions cause disease. Also describes the human diseases linked to prions.
http://science-education.nih.gov/home2.nsf/Educational+Resources/Resource+Formats/Online+Resources/+High+School/D07612181A4E785B85256CCD0064857B

About human prion diseases (National Prion Disease Surveillance Center, USA)

Describes sporadic, familial, iatrogenic, vCJD and kuru forms of prion diseases.
http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/abouthpd.html

World Health Organisation

• Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/en/index.html

• Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs180/en/index.html

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans (Institute of Food Science and Technology, UK)

A position statement covering the history, research and control measures relating to BSE and CJD.
http://www.ifst.org/uploadedfiles/cms/store/ATTACHMENTS/BSE.pdf

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, UK)

Provides some background information and lists the latest developments related to BSE.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse/index.html

Prion diseases (Leicester University, UK)

A detailed technical account of prion diseases. Summarises the evidence for the existence of infective agents that are composed only of protein.
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/3035/Prions.html