Scrapie again

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 ?

Originally from: frances fish
                        
My apologies, you DO need to have had a sheep diagnosed with scrapie to qualify for this scheme. Reports are out of a "new" form of scrapie in a 4 year old sheep. This only goes to prove, as like the last time when Defra started looking more closely at the condition, just how little they actually know about it. Certainly they are not in a position to inform anyone else or even advise but apparently that does not stop them wishing to eradicate animals without the "right" genes. The Americans term it "depopulating" (its slaughter under a pseudonym ). I suspect, from what I read, that the uptake of the National Scrapie Plan is low and the interest minimal, more especially when it means having sheep killed as a result.They appear to be threshing around, trying to scare people into having their stock tested and alarming the public in the process, presumably reducing demand for lamb and driving down the price so £90 starts to sound good to some ? I do wish that those who report verbatim on Defra's news handouts would take the trouble to find out more about the subject and desist from stating that BSE can cause CJD and that sheep may have BSE. They are related, they are all TSE's but would appear, from all that I have been able to discover, to be what is termed species specific i.e. a cow doesn't get CJD. a sheep doesn't get BSE (except artifically in a lab), man doesn't get scrapie. cows don't get scrapie. If we can't get this disease, and many of us will have eaten lamb or mutton, unknowingly, from sheep with this condition, just what IS all the fuss about ? Frances

Originally from: frances fish
                        
There are several things that puzzle me about this latest scare of a so-called "new" strain of scrapie. If the investigators have used rapid diagnostic tests and the sheep died in January, why has the report only just surfaced now, in April ?If they have been suppressing the information all this time, why has it been released now ? They state that this "new" strain has similarities to BSE but also to an experimental strain of scrapie type CH 1461. What is this experimental strain, presumably lab. produced. If this condition was so rife, wouldn't you think there would be more than enough natural material for the scientists to work on without manufacturing their own ? Can a lab produced strain ever be the same as a naturally occurring one ? Its rather like saying that sheep can get BSE until you discover that to do this they had to inject material directly into the brains of the poor unfortunate sheep. Actually, a shiver is running down my spine as I type that little gem ! The third thing that annoys me, is that useless agency that is supposed to protect the standard of the food we eat but does no such thing. I wonder if they have been threatened with abolishion and this is their way of trying to justify their existance ? I am perfectly sure that your average man or woman takes little notice of scientific reports stating there appears to be a new strain of scrapie, yawn, yawn, so what ? Its been around for over 250 years, most of the population have been exposed to it, apparently with no effect on human health (unless, of course they are going to discover it makes our children more susceptinle to measles and you better get out there for your MMR jabs !!!!) Thus, killing two birds but witha single stone. Frances