NEW form of the sheep disease scrapie has been detected in Britain
December 14th 2004 - A NEW form of the sheep disease scrapie has been detected in Britain.
The unknown strain was spotted last year and there have since been more than 80 confirmed cases, including a total of 12 (five from Wales) in sheep with the highest scrapie resistance genotypes.
Initial speculation that the mystery disease could be BSE, which has not been found to occur naturally in sheep, has been dismissed. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Defra, allayed any fears by confirming the disease is scrapie.
It is described as “atypical” and has not been found in Britain before although other European countries have reported similar “atypical” scrapie findings before. The disease was detected by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency during a survey of abattoir and fallen stock samples.
The VLA recognised the possibility of “atypical” cases of scrapie last year when scientists detected a small number of samples that produced contradictory results when tested with different methods. Further investigations have now confirmed the presence of “atypical” scrapie - and ruled out any similarities with BSE from experimentally infected sheep.
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