Transmission and Passage of Experimental "Kuru" to Chimpanzees

Abstract

Kuru, a familial degenerative disease of the nervous system occurring in a restricted area of the Highlands of New Guinea, has apparently been transmitted to chimpanzees, but not to any other of the many experimental hosts tried. Transmission of the kuru syndrome from chimpanzee to chimpanzee has now been effected, with a shortening of the incubation period to 1 year from the 1½ to 2½ years found on intracerebral passage of human brain tissue to chimpanzee. Other chimpanzees have been inoculated to determine the size and heat stability of the agent, its presence outside the nervous system, and its pathogenicity by other routes of inoculation.