Patent ID: 7867710

Claim:
A method for identifying a bovine animal as having increased susceptibility to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, comprising determining if the prion protein of a bovine comprises five, six, or seven octapeptide repeat region sequences, and further determining the presence of a lysine (K) amino acid in said bovine prion protein at a position selected from the group consisting of a position corresponding to position 211 of SEQ ID NO: 14 wherein said protein comprises six octapeptide repeat region sequences, a position corresponding to position 211 of SEQ ID NO: 14 wherein said protein comprises five octapeptide repeat region sequences, and a position corresponding to position 211 of SEQ ID NO: 14 wherein said protein comprises seven octapeptide repeat region sequences, further wherein the presence of said lysine at said position is indicative of increased susceptibility to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.