Originally from: frances fish
                        
A "new" scheme(actually, of course, its not ) to enable those with the inclination to volunteer their stock,healthy apart from being what the government regards as scrapie-susceptible, for slaughter. You do not even have to have sheep with scrapie to join this elite band, help will be given for restocking afterwards with so-called scrapie resistant rams etc. What do you do if the particular breed that you have has few or no R1 stock to re-stock with ? All the "help" in the world cannot provide what does not exist, gene pools may be gone forever. All of this based on science that is dodgy in the extreme and no doubt any true scientist would disown this shoddy piece of work as unproven and about as scientific as a blue moon. I believe this government terms it , and I quote, "the best scientific advice ", Says who ? We all know where the best scientific advice got us in 2001. Defra seems sublimely unaware that there is a vaccine against Brucellosis, RB51 which does not produce serological reactions which would make it difficult to tell if an animal had the disease or had been vaccinated against it. No wonder the new CVO, Debbie Reynolds (wasn't she in "Singing in the rain" with Gene Kelly ?)intends spending so much money on vet students to educate them in infectious animal diseases, I think it may well be overdue and sorely needed. Most other medically related professions, medecine itself and dentistry, have to keep themselves up to date and abreast of current thinking, is it not so with members of the veterinary profession ? All the animal health schemes that the government is dreaming up will be totally impractible if there are not the skilled and knowledgable vets to oversee and police them.And that is the current trend and is set to continue. What of scrapie, BSE, TB etc then ?