France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
Hm:<p>"long period of uncertainty began on 31 May 2010, when she stabbed her left thumb with a curved forceps while cleaning a cryostat—a machine that can cut tissues at very low temperatures—that she used to slice brain sections from <i>transgenic mice infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE</i>. She pierced two layers of latex gloves and drew blood"<p>Later in the article:<p>""We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep prions, which have never been shown to be infectious to humans,” Aguzzi [neuropathologist at the University of Zurich] says."<p>It sounds like the assumption that mouse-adapted sheep prions can't infect humans may be flawed.