The susceptibility to scrapie of certain laboratory animal species was examined. A
comparatively high level of susceptibility was shown in the vole in which the disease was
characterised by its relatively short incubation period, sudden onset of marked clinical signs
and short duration of illness. The Chinese hamster was also susceptible, the period of
incubation resembling that in the mouse and being shorter than that in the golden hamster.
Gerbils also constituted a potential laboratory model albeit with a longer incubation period …