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Volume 6
Journal of Infectious Diseases and Therapy
ISSN: 2332-0877
Infection Congress 2018
March 01-02, 2018
March 01-02, 2018 Berlin, Germany
5
th
International Congress on
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) is probably caused by
Acinetobacter
bacteria
and not by prions
Alan Ebringer
King’s College London, UK
P
revious studies have shown that there is molecular mimicry between
Streptococcus
and cardiac collagens in rheumatic
fever. In early 1990’s the British government asked whether there was a role for molecular mimicry in bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. A cursory review of the literature showed that molecular mimicry was
present between the soil and nasal microbe
Acinetobacter
and myelin, the covering of nerves. The government, through DEFRA
(Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) then gave a £250,000 grant to King’s College and access to BSE materials
to investigate this problem. A pilot study showed that elevated levels of antibodies to the soil and nasal microbe
Acinetobacter
was found in 29 BSE animals compared to sera from 76 control animals (p<0.001). A second larger study involving 128
BSE compared to 127 controls, confirmed that elevated levels of antibodies to
Acinetobacter
were present in BSE animals
(p<0.001) but not to 6 other bacteria. It appeared that feeding cattle with abattoir materials (meat-and bone meal) caused either
contamination with
Acinetobacter
or with prions and the government banned the use of meat-and-bone meal supplements
which led to the disappearance of BSE in British cattle. However a review of the definition of transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSE) revealed that the Pasteur Effect, namely the production of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis
(EAE) in experimental animals had not been considered when injecting saline brain homogenates in BSE research studies. The
bio-assay is based on a wrong assumption that injecting saline brain homogenates will not cause damage to the healthy, test
experimental animals. The concept that prions are infectious particles may require revision.
Biography
Alan Ebringer is Professor of Immunology at King's College London and has published over 300 papers in scientific literature. His main interests are immunology
of ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE "mad cow disease"). His group has suggested that BSE is caused by
Acinetobacter
bacteria.
drdeanna.rpm@hotmail.comAlan Ebringer, J Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C1-038