Scientists said the discovery may lead to the development of a urine-based test that could be used on live animals, preventing the precautionary slaughter of many animals that now occurs when Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is detected.

The findings are published in the open access journal Proteome Science.

"We are hopeful that the knowledge that we've gained from this study will eventually lead to a live test," David Knox, a researcher at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, said in a statement. "It may be possible to develop similar tests for other species as well, including humans with Creutzfeldt Jakob disease."