Animal Sciences - Kuru

Where did kuru occur

A region of Papua New Guinea to the fore tribe with a population of 40,000

In the 1950’s

Kuru disease

Women and children

First case in 1920’s

Disease onset was 5-60 years

Clinical duration 12 months

~1000 deaths

Cannibalistic disease

Prion disease

Scrapie

Prion disease

World wide

First case in 1732

William Hadlow

• DMV

• Was studying scrapie in Berkshire, England

• Visited museum in England about kuru

• Suggested kuru was a prion disease like scrapie

• Hypothesized it was transmissible to non human primates

Carleton Gajdusek

Medical research in New Guinea

Lived among the fore tribe and witnessed their “practices”

Hypothesized that the ritualistic cannibalism caused kuru

Changed the practice

Kuru decreased last case 2005