Scrapie in sheep

[Agrivator]

It used to be a major issue, but it seems to have gone off the radar.

Why?

 

[AftonShepherd]

Was it ever as big an issue as it was made out to be?

 

[Tim W]

We had a big drive to reduce scrapie in the national flock in 2001
National Scrapie Plan http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/resources/000/054/063/NSP_english.pdf

 

[andybk]

big push over last 20+ years to use resistant stock in the main breeds , at first government funded to give consumer purchase confidence after BSE crisis in cattle (untill they realised the antipodean lamb had susceptible genetics) now breeder funded , as most can see its a good and fairly easy thing to eliminate .

 

[Wooly]

It used to be a major issue, but it seems to have gone off the radar.

Why?

Because the Government was given advice from scientists, that scrapie in sheep was potentially as bad as BSE in cattle.

They came close to killing the entire UK flock, due to scientist discovering BSE in 'sheeps' brains........... only to realise that the sheep brains they were testing turned out to be cattle brains !!

 

[andybk]

Because the Government was given advice from scientists, that scrapie in sheep was potentially as bad as BSE in cattle.

They came close to killing the entire UK flock, due to scientist discovering BSE in 'sheeps' brains........... only to realise that the sheep brains they were testing turned out to be cattle brains !!

yea and we still have to mouth lambs this time of year because of dodgy science ,

 

[Paul E]

Because the Government was given advice from scientists, that scrapie in sheep was potentially as bad as BSE in cattle.

They came close to killing the entire UK flock, due to scientist discovering BSE in 'sheeps' brains........... only to realise that the sheep brains they were testing turned out to be cattle brains !!

Then they realised what we've all known for years ----Sheep don't have brains.
(Unless the sh!t they have between their ears counts as brains??)

 

[Agrivator]

But has scrapie as a disease simply disappeared?

If it has, how did that happen. And was the genotyping and culling of good stock a complete waste of time?

 

[Tim W]

Stats given are 403 confirmed cases in 2002 down to 100 in 2006 & 1 in 2013
Now at 7 cases in 2019
Reduction down to genotyping & culling
A success I would say
If stock were susceptible to scrapie then by definition they would not be good stock?

There was a scrapie genotyping consequences project that looked at links between susceptible/culled animals and other important traits
No significant links were found
Search it and you will find all the details

 

[neilo]

Stats given are 403 confirmed cases in 2002 down to 100 in 2006 & 1 in 2013
Now at 7 cases in 2019
Reduction down to genotyping & culling
A success I would say
If stock were susceptible to scrapie then by definition they would not be good stock?

There was a scrapie genotyping consequences project that looked at links between susceptible/culled animals and other important traits
No significant links were found
Search it and you will find all the details

I would agree with much of that, but the data may have been ‘muddied’ by under reporting at times, followed by a surge of reported cases when the compensation scheme came in, then a miraculous lack of reported cases just as soon as that compo scheme was stopped.?

 

[clod hopper]

Was it ever as big an issue as it was made out to be?

New Zealand imported Texel, Oxford Down, Finn's, White Faced Woodland in the early 90's from Denmark and Finland I believe because they were scrapie free.

 

[andybk]

Stats given are 403 confirmed cases in 2002 down to 100 in 2006 & 1 in 2013
Now at 7 cases in 2019
Reduction down to genotyping & culling
A success I would say
If stock were susceptible to scrapie then by definition they would not be good stock?

There was a scrapie genotyping consequences project that looked at links between susceptible/culled animals and other important traits
No significant links were found
Search it and you will find all the details

the caveat might be, that resistant genotype animals "could" be carriers but it never fully develops , but might pass it on to susceptible stock . well thats Australia's stance so far and have closed the door to NZ imports as they have recently imported resistant stock

 

[Agrivator]

New Zealand imported Texel, Oxford Down, Finn's, White Faced Woodland in the early 90's from Denmark and Finland I believe because they were scrapie free.

The most interesting bit about that is that there are or were White-Faced Woodlands in Denmark and/or Finland. I thought there were only four left somewhere in darkest Lancashire.

 

[clod hopper]

The most interesting bit about that is that there are or were White-Faced Woodlands in Denmark and/or Finland. I thought there were only four left somewhere in darkest Lancashire.

I know! There's someone over here selling rams on trade me (NZ's e bay) don't think I've ever seen one!!!!

 

[neilo]

The most interesting bit about that is that there are or were White-Faced Woodlands in Denmark and/or Finland. I thought there were only four left somewhere in darkest Lancashire.

The point is that Denmark is free of Scrapie, so susceptible sheep wouldn’t contract it, as they don’t in Australia & NZ. If those same susceptible sheep were on a farm in Lancashire that had the scrapie agent present, they would succumb to it.

I seem to remember hearing that the Danish Texels imported to NZ were never released from quarantine there. They were bred in quarantine and only those progeny made it out? Because of the timescale involved, those Texel genetics were a decade old before they got use, and then no other ‘Texel’ input afterwards and different selection pressures than in Europe, hence why they are such ‘different’ animals to European Texels, for better or worse.