To investigate the regulation of the autophagy process in scrapie animals, expression of four genes (ATG5, BECN1, ATG9 and LC3-B) involved in distinct steps of autophagy were quantified in Fc, T, Cbl and Mo of scrapie-infected sheep and healthy controls by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Here, ATG5 is linked to scrapie.