Prion diseases are rapidly progressive, incurable neurodegenerative disorders caused by
misfolded, aggregated proteins known as prions, which are uniquely infectious. Remarkably,
these infectious proteins have been responsible for widespread disease epidemics,
including kuru in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, and chronic wasting
disease in cervids, the latter of which has spread across North America and recently
appeared in Norway and Finland. The hallmark histopathological features include …