Patent ID: 6972177

Claim:
A method for the immunological detection of prion disease in an animal, said method comprising: extracting tissue from the animal; and screening for prion disease before clinical signs of prion disease have developed, said screening comprising detecting aberrant prion proteins in the tissue extracted from the animal with an antibody induced against a peptide sequence that represents one of five domains of said aberrant prion protein, but not an epitope of a normal prion protein; wherein said peptide sequence is selected from the group of peptide sequences consisting of: amino acid positions 94-105, 100-111, 126-143, 145-177 or 223-234 in SEQ ID NO: 1; amino acid positions 102-113, 108-119, 134-151, 153-185 or 231-242 in SEQ ID NO: 2; amino acid positions 94-106, 101-112, 127-144, 146-178 or 224-235 in SEQ ID NO: 3; amino acid positions 90-102, 97-108, 123-140, 142-174 or 220-231 in SEQ ID NO: 4, SEQ ID NO: 5, and SEQ ID NO: 6; amino acid positions 89-101, 96-107, 122-139, 141-173 or 219-230 in SEQ ID NO: 7; and amino acid positions 63-74, 69-80, 95-112, 114-146 or 192-203 in SEQ ID NO: 8.