Written By - BBC - 05/22/2007
Link to Original Article here

CJD is the human form of Mad Cow Disease in cattle, Scrapies in sheep and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. Scientists have developed a vaccine that has stopped mice from getting the brain disease similar to BSE in cattle.

Many of the mice that received the oral vaccine had no symptoms of the disease after 400 days but some of the did get the disease after a delayed onset of more than 3 times what it normally takes for the mice to show symptoms.

So although extremely significant it might not ultimately be a cure or even a preventative measure but more of a way of reducing the severity and limiting the damage if only a delay in offset. But if you can delay it long enough then you could possibly delay it till you die of natural causes which would be the same as a cure for all practical purposes.

This may not seem huge but currently there is NO treatment and NO cure for CJD (CWD/BSE). So this is a huge step forward and could lead to possible future cures even if this one falls short.

For those that aren't familiar with the disease here is a brief overview:
CJD, CWD and BSE are caused by an abnormal versions of prion protein. Which cause holes to form in the brain of the person or animal infected which eventually leads to death.

CWD in deer has spread from its old strong hold in a small area of the west to a handful of areas such as Wisconsin, Saskatewan and other area. Where the disease has been found the entire area is put under management to reduce the number of deer to as close to zero as possible to prevent the spread to "clean" areas.

The bad news is the prions have to be heated to over 800 degrees before the prions are destroyed. Chemical cleaners in pens have been ineffective in ridding the pens of the disease even after leaving them vacant for a couple of years. So basically once an area is infectied it is always infected.

Dr Wisniewski said they were now redesigning the vaccine so it could be used on deer and cattle, and possibly humans, too.

Ideally further research will shows that this or future vaccines reverse the disease after infected person or animal shows symptoms , then it would be useable in treatment. Keep your fingers crossed.