Summary of BSE transmissions in recipients following blood transfusion.

*indentifies animals that were culled because of inappetance, which we now recognise to be an early symptom of TSE infection occuring before overt clinical signs.†indicates animals that were culled for other welfare, non-TSE causes.††This animal died of intercurrent causes.Table 1 shows details of blood components which, when transfused from donors to paired recipients, have resulted in BSE. The time point of euthanasia in recipients is indicated in days post transfusion (dpt) and animals were culled following presentation of clinical signs typical of BSE. In a limited number of cases, sheep were culled for welfare reasons. Transfused components are abbreviated as follows: whole blood (WB), red cell concentrates (RCC), buffy coat (BC), plasma (PLS), platelet concentrates (PLT) and leucoreduced equivalents are prefixed with ‘LR’. The volume of each component the recipients received is indicated in ml.