It's a mad, mad, mad, mad cow: a review of analytical methodology for detecting BSE/TSE

This article selectively reviews current research on the analytical detection of bovine spongioform encephalopathy (BSE) and transmissible spongioform encephalopathy (TSE) in a variety of matrices. Each of these assays is or will need to be validated against the golden Syrian hamster bioassay, the 'gold' standard by which all prion assays are compared. The European Commission's 1999 review of the immunoassays developed by several companies is a model that can be followed for the other assays presented here. The immunoassays and capillary electrophoresis methods reviewed show much promise in solving the issue of analytical detection of BSE/TSE in blood and other convenient biofluids. Creative ideas such as the cyclic amplification process pioneered by Saborio, Permanne and Soto should allow this to happen in the near future. (C)2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.