Epidemiologic comparisons between Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and scrapie in France during the 12-year period 1968-1979.

Systematic investigation of the occurrence of scrapie in France revealed that between 1968 and 1979 the disease has been diagnosed in a total of 145 flocks, in virtually every region where sheep are raised. The geographic distribution of scrapie-affected flocks was unrelated to the residential location of patients dying of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) during this period, arguing against direct contact or indirect vector transmission of the disease to humans. Regional lamb consumption was not correlated with the frequency of CJD; however, lamb consumption among nationwide categories of increasing population density (rural communities, towns, cities, the Paris metropolitan area, and the city of Paris) did correlate with an increasing frequency of CJD. Future accuracy in the reporting of scrapie, together with precise information about commercial distribution routes of lamb and other sheep products, will be required to assess the significance of this observation.