Transmission of Kuru from Man to Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) 8½ Years after Inoculation

Abstract

NEUROLOGICAL disease has appeared in a female rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) following an asymptomatic incubation period of 8 years and 5 months after inoculation intracerebrally (i.c.) and intravenously (i.v.) with a 10% suspension of brain tissue from a human kuru patient. Clinical signs were remarkably similar to those observed in patients naturally affected with kuru and in sub-human primates in which the disease has been experimentally induced by inoculation of the kuru virus. Histopathological examination of the brain of this rhesus monkey has confirmed this first successful transmission of kuru to an old-world monkey. Previously the chimpanzee and four species of new-world monkeys (spider, Ateles; capuchin, Cebus; squirrel, Saimiri; and woolly, Lagothrix) have been found to be susceptible to kuru.