Decontamination studies with the agents of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie

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Abstract
Macerates of bovine brain infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent, and rodent brain infected with the 263K or ME7 strains of scrapie agent, were subjected to porous-load autoclaving at temperatures between 134 and 138 °C for ≤ 60 min. Bioassay in rodents showed that none of the regimes produced complete inactivation. Homogenates of BSE-infected bovine brain were exposed for ≤ 120 min to solutions of sodium hypochlorite or sodium dichloroisocyanurate containing ≤ 16,500 ppm available chlorine. There was no detectable survival of infectivity after the hypochlorite treatments but none of the dichloroisocyanurate solutions produced complete inactivation. Homogenates of BSE-infected bovine brain, and rodent brain infected with the 263K and ME7 strains of scrapie agent, were exposed for ≤ 120 min to 1M or 2M sodium hydroxide but no procedure produced complete inactivation of all agents tested.