Game and Fish want sportsmen to submit heads into one of their collection barrels. The diagnostic test or Immunohistochemistry results are not simply positive or negative. They are often scored based on staining intensity and percentage of cells stained. Using cervidized transgenic mice or mouse models, antibodies are cloned in a lab and then added to a thin slice of lymph node mounted on slides.
These mouse model antibodies combined with fluorescent amyloid dyes are supposed to bind to fibrils of PrPcwd and emit fluorescence when exited.
Is this validation or final confirmation? Are these tests 100% conclusive? No
There should be another step to identify the causative agent. Tuberculosis, cancer, Brucellosis and many diseases use these tests to do a quick shortcut. If the test says false positive the next step is to grow out a culture and identify the isolated material, and can it be independently analyzed and confirmed.
So far all we are getting is a list of procedures, techniques, and chemistry sounding methods as proof that isolation has occurred.
The reality is; all the positives the NDGF has to date are false positives. Is CWD real? Yes, there is something out there, a slow killer. Is it the mis-folded protein theory?