Strikingly, because of similar C-terminal sequences, the antibodies for human sPrP presented herein also detect shed PrP fragments in some of the most prion disease-relevant animal species such as cattle, sheep/goats, and deer, thus likely enabling future studies on the relevance of PrP shedding in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Scrapie and chronic wasting disease (CWD), respectively. Here, PRNP is linked to prion disease.