About the Authors

Michael L. Clawson

mike.clawson@ars.usda.gov

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Nebraska, United States of America

Juergen A. Richt

Affiliation USDA, ARS, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Thierry Baron

Affiliation Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments (AFSSA), Unité ATNC, Lyon, France

Anne-Gaëlle Biacabe

Affiliation Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments (AFSSA), Unité ATNC, Lyon, France

Stefanie Czub

Affiliation National & OIE BSE Reference Laboratories, Pathology/Virology/Wildlife Diseases, Animal Diseases Research Institute/Canada, Food Inspection Agency, Lethbridge/Alberta, Canada

Michael P. Heaton

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Nebraska, United States of America

Timothy P. L. Smith

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Nebraska, United States of America

William W. Laegreid

Current address: Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America

Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Nebraska, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MC WL. Performed the experiments: MC JR TS. Analyzed the data: MC JR WL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TB AB SC JR MH. Wrote the paper: MC. Other: Reviewed the paper: WL TS MH SC AB TB JR.