| Year | Finding | Investigator(s) |
| 1730 | description of ovine TSE, Scrapie, in British and European sheep | l |
| 1920 | description of human TSE, Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease, in humans; Germany | Creutzfeldt/Jakob |
| 1946 |
vaccination of sheep with formalin-treated ovine brain causes Scrapie outbreak |
Gordon |
| 1 |
first accidental cause of such a TSE outbreak and initial
proof of the stability of the disease causing agent
|
l |
| 1947 | Scrapie found in the US in sheep imported from the UK | |
| 1947 | TSE described in mink; Transmissible mink encephalopathy, US | |
| 1950s | description of Kuru (shaking disease) in humans; Papua, New Guinea | Gajdusek |
| 1954-9 |
similiarity between CJD & Kuru and between Kuru & Scrapie recognized |
Klatzo or Hadlow |
| 11 | TSEs believed to be the effect of a "slow virus"; one that acted slowly with a long latency period; proposed in 1954 and 1959 but now known not to be the case | Sigurdsson or Hadlow |
| 1966 | Kuru brain shown to experimentally infect chimpanzee brain | Gajdusek |
| 1 | finding eventually lead to the end of canabalism and control of Kuru in New Guinea | l |
| 1963 |
National Pituitary Agency initiation of the US government
and later European programs to distribute glands for the extraction of
hormones to treat endocrine disorders, esp. treatment dwarfism in children
with pituitary-derived growth hormone
|
|
| 1967 | TSE found in wild ungulates, i.e. Chronic Wasting Disease of deer and elk described, US | |
| 1976 | Nobel prize awarded for TSE work | Gajdusek |
| 1982 | purified fragment of the prion protein (PrP 27-30) was shown to have Scrapie infectivity laying the ground work to prove that a protein (not a bacterium or virus) was the infectious agent | Prusiner or Bolton |
| 1983 | PrP (prion) accumulation in neuronal tissue of CJD and other prion diseases proven | McKinley |
| 1985 | Pitsham Farm syndrome of "mad cows" discovered on British farm, BSE appears | l |
| 1985 | US last imported beef from UK | l |
| 1985 | children injected with 'contaminated' hormones eventually develop CJD in their 20's; first four cases identified | l |
| 1985 | after ~27,000 children are injected worldwide since 1963 a link between CJD and contaminated growth hormone is realized; genetically engineered growth hormone now used to treat dwarfism | |
| 1986 | first verified case of BSE | l |
|
1988 |
mandated destruction of BSE stricken cows in Britain | l |
| 1988 | BSE cases must be reported; i.e. BSE is a notifiable disease |
l |
| 1988 | ruminant to ruminant feed ban introduced to prohibit feeding cattle the rendered remains of other animals including other cattle and Scrapie infected sheep | l |
| 1989 | US bans import of ruminants and ruminant products from BSE infected countries, all cattle imported from UK between 1981 to 1989 into the US being watched (only 4 alive at end or 2000) | |
| 1989 | hereditary linkage of human prion diseases with PrP mutations described | Hsiao |
| 1990 | surveillance setup in Britain to ascetain possible links between BSE and CJD | l |
| 1990 | TSE found in cats, caused by feeding feeds with meat and bone meal containing BSE or prion-contaminated bovine tissues | |
| 1992 | BSE epidemic begins to decline in UK | l |
| 1992 | TSE found in a zoo monkey (marmoset) caused by feeding BSE containing foods | |
| 1994 | first case of vCJD discovered | l |
| 1995 | several cases of CJD described in unusually young patients; extensive amyloid plaques found; vCJD established as a unique form of CJD | ll |
| 1996 | cause-effect link between BSE and vCJD proposed | Will |
| 1997 | Second Nobel prize awarded for TSE work | Prusiner |
| 1997 | US banned all import of rendered products from Europe: all species | l |
| 1997 | ruminant to ruminant feed ban introduced in US to prevent chance of an epidemic of BSE in US cattle | |
| 2000 | a total of 87 cases of vCJD described in Britain, 3 other cases outside the UK (France & Ireland) | l |
| 2001 | as of April 2001 all cattle slaughtered in US must be certified that they have not been fed ruminant MBM | l |
| 2001 | almost 200,000 diseased cattle dead and 4,500,000 asymptomatic
cattle destroyed in UK no cases identified in US |
l |