Designated WOAH reference expert
Dr. Gordon Mitchell, Head, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Unit
gordon.mitchell@inspection.gc.ca
The Ottawa Animal Health Laboratory (OAHL), located at the Ottawa Laboratory (Fallowfield) campus, was designated as a World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Reference Laboratory for chronic wasting disease (CWD) and scrapie in 2007.
Mandate
To advance science and research on the diagnosis, surveillance and control of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) including CWD and scrapie and to provide scientific advice, assistance and technical training to WOAH member countries.
Latest updates
- The latest WOAH Annual Reports are available online (once on the page, scroll to "Chronic wasting disease" and "Scrapie")
Activities and services
- Diagnostic testing and confirmation for TSEs
- TSE surveillance
- Support to build global laboratory capacity by providing reference materials, method protocols and proficiency panels
Current research interests
- Investigating cross-species transmission of CWD
- Genetic approaches and tools to prevent, control and eradicate TSEs
More information
- Agent causing chronic wasting disease (CWD) [woah.org]
- Scrapie [woah.org]
- CFIA reference laboratories and collaborating centres
- Reference Laboratories [woah.org]
- Twinning is winning: collaborating for the global management of animal diseases
Selected publications
- Extraneural infection route restricts prion conformational variability and attenuates the impact of quaternary structure on infectivity
- Optimization of RT-QuIC assay duration for screening chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer
- Heterozygosity for cervid S138N polymorphism results in subclinical CWD in gene-targeted mice and progressive inhibition of prion conversion
- Gene-edited cell models to study chronic wasting disease
- Adaptive selection of a prion strain conformer corresponding to established North American CWD during propagation of novel emergent Norwegian strains in mice expressing elk or deer prion protein
- Experimental oral transmission of chronic wasting disease to sika deer (Cervus nippon)
- Studies in bank voles reveal strain differences between chronic wasting disease prions from Norway and North America
- Large‐scale prion protein genotyping in Canadian caribou populations and potential impact on chronic wasting disease susceptibility
- Cross-validation of the RT-QuIC assay for the antemortem detection of chronic wasting disease in elk
- Identification of circulating microRNA signatures as potential biomarkers in the serum of elk infected with chronic wasting disease
- First case of chronic wasting disease in Europe in a Norwegian free-ranging reindeer
- Primary transmission of chronic wasting disease versus scrapie prions from small ruminants to transgenic mice expressing ovine or cervid prion protein
- Additional publications on bovine spongiform encephalopathy