Horse population has been gradually increasing with the growth of the racing industry in Republic of Korea (ROK). Approximately 22,941 horses including native ponies were raised on 1,142 farms in 2006. Great care has been taken to prevent viral, bacterial and parasitic infections in horses. However, there has been few reports on equine infectious anemia (EIA) in ROK until recently since 1987. Therefore, we conducted a serological survey of EIA in ROK from 2007 through 2009. Using the agar gel immunodiffusion test, a total of 2,601 horses were tested in Foreign Animal Disease Division of Animal, Plant, and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency. This survey found no serological evidence of EIA presence in ROK. Although our surveillance found no evidence of EIA in ROK during the surveillance period, it is possible that EIA could be introduced into ROK in the near future. Increased cooperation between the government and other agencies, such as horse-racing authorities, is important for both the early detection of the disease and the development of effective veterinary and public health strategies.

Abnormal prions are infectious agents involved in a neuro-degenerative disease, which occurs naturally such as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer and elk, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, Scrapie in sheep and goats and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans. The cellular prion protein of the elk consists of 233 amino acids (residues 25-257), which represents an autonomous folding unit with three α-helices and two-stranded anti-parallel β-sheets. Here, we demonstrated elk-recPrP (Elk recombinant prion protein) which can be obtained as follows; (1) Cloning of elk PrP gene, (2) Expression of a histidine-tagged full-length elk PrP by induction with IPTG in E. coli and (3) Purification by affinity chromatography using Ni-NTA agarose resin. In Western blot and ELISA analysis, elk-recPrP showed specific activity against anti-PrP monoclonal antibody. Thus, our elk-recPrP would be a useful tool for the understanding of basic structure and mechanism studies of PrPSC formation.