Short Communication Novel polymorphisms at codons 146 and 151 in the prion protein gene of Cyprus goats, and their association with natural scrapie Penelope Papasavva-Stylianou a, * , Marina Kleanthous b , Pavlos Toumazos c , Petroula Mavrikiou d , Phedias Loucaides e a Virology Laboratory, Veterinary Services, 1417 Nicosia, Cyprus b Molecular Genetics Thalassaemia Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, P.O. Box 23462, 1683 Nicosia, Cyprus c Pathology Laboratory, Veterinary Services, 1417 Nicosia, Cyprus d Frederick Institute of Technology, Y. Frederickou 7, Pallouriotissa, Nicosia, Cyprus e Veterinary Services, 1417 Nicosia, Cyprus Abstract To discern whether an association exists between specific combinations of polymorphisms of the prion protein (PrP) and natural scrapie in Cyprus goats, 250 goats were examined, including 164 histologically positive cases. Previously reported amino acid poly- morphisms were detected at codons 154 (R ! H), 168(P ! Q), 220(Q ! H) and 240 (S ! P) and nucleotide alterations at codons 42 (a ! g) and 138 (c ! t). Additionally, novel amino acid polymorphisms were detected at codons 146 (N ! S or D) and 151 (R ! H) and new ‘‘silent’’ mutations were found at codons 179 (V, g ! t), 181 (D, c ! t) and 219 (T, c ! t). The two novel polymorphisms at codon 146 were found only in the healthy control and scrapie-negative goats. By comparison, none of the scrapie-affected goats encoded these polymorphisms. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Prion protein; Polymorphisms; Goats; Genotype; Scrapie Scrapie was first recorded in Cyprus in two flocks of sheep in 1985 (Toumazos, 1988, 1991). Subsequently, in 1986, the disease was diagnosed in dairy goats run in the same mixed flocks as affected sheep (Toumazos and Al- ley, 1989). Since then scrapie has been a major problem for Cyprus animal husbandry and causes major losses in the sheep and goat populations. Previous studies have shown that three polymor- phisms in the sheep PrP gene are closely associated with resistance or susceptibility to scrapie: in the codons for amino acids 136 [alanine (A)–valine (V)], 154 [arginine (R)–histidine (H)] and 171 [glutamine (Q)–R–H] (Belt et al., 1995; Bossers et al., 1996; Hunter et al., 1994, 1989; Laplanche et al., 1993). In goats, PrP amino acid polymorphisms at codons 21 (V ! A), 23 (L ! P), 49 (G ! S), 142 (I ! M), 143 (H ! R), 154 (R ! H), 168 (P ! Q), 220 (Q ! H), 240 (S ! P) and ‘‘silent’’ mutations at codons 42 (a ! g), 107 (g ! a), 138 (c ! t) and 207 (g ! a) have been described (Billinis et al., 2002; Goldmann et al., 1996), and some of these variants appeared to be associ- ated with susceptibility in Greek goats. A PrP variant having only three rather than the usual five copies of a short peptide repeat, may be associated with increased scrapie incubation period in British goats (Goldmann et al. (1998). In addition, the dimorphism at codon 1090-0233/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2005.09.013 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +357 22 805270; fax: +357 22 332803. E-mail address: penelope.s@cytanet.com.cy (P. Papasavva-Stylia- nou). www.elsevier.com/locate/tvjl The Veterinary Journal 173 (2007) 459–462 The Veterinary Journal