 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Mad cow fears prompt Vermont sheep seizure
©Los Angeles Times © St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001 Federal officials on Wednesday seized a Vermont farmer's flock of sheep over suspicions that some of the animals may be infected with mad cow disease and could pose a threat to livestock nationwide. It was the first time the U.S. government has confiscated livestock as a precaution against mad cow disease. Some two dozen federal agents converged on a farm in Greensboro, Vt., at dawn to load 234 sheep and lambs onto trailers. Security agents will escort the animals to a lab in Ames, Iowa, where they will be killed and tested. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to seize a second flock of 140 sheep in East Warren, Vt., within the next few weeks. It will take at least two years -- and possibly much longer -- before pathologists can determine for sure whether the animals harbor mad cow disease or a related illness, scrapie, that is relatively common in sheep and cannot be transmitted to humans. Given the uncertain science, the flocks' owners have bitterly protested the seizure as premature. But USDA veterinarian Linda Detwiler insisted that the agency "had no choice but to take decisive action. . . . We needed to take those sheep." Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has never been detected in the United States. Yet it has devastated Europe, spreading from Britain to France, Italy, Germany and beyond. Nearly 100 people have died of a human version believed to be transmitted through tainted meat products. The USDA has said four sheep from the flock showed signs of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of neurological diseases that includes both mad cow disease and scrapie. Even if the Vermont sheep do have mad cow disease, the chances of them infecting humans or other livestock are extremely low. The sheep are highly unusual and valuable East Friesians. Though some 50 lambs from the two suspect flocks were sold to local residents for meat several years ago, they were not being raised for their wool or their meat, but for their rich milk, used in making exotic cheeses. And cheese made from the ewes' milk continues to be marketed in Vermont and some neighboring states. But mad cow disease is not known to spread to humans through milk products, or through the cuts of meat that commonly are eaten. Instead, the disease seems to concentrate in brain and spinal tissue. So the most likely scenario for the Vermont sheep to infect the food chain would be if they were slaughtered, ground up and fed to other livestock. Federal law bans this practice. And the Vermont sheep have been under quarantine since 1998, their every movement monitored by federal inspectors. Given all those controls, "the risks (the sheep pose) to both animal and human health are very small," said George Gray, who has studied mad cow disease as director of the Harvard University's center for risk assessment. Nonetheless, he acknowledged, "you can construct a chain of possibles" leading to widespread contamination. "It's impossible to say never," he said. "It's impossible to say it couldn't happen." And the longer the Vermont sheep grazed their pastures, the more nervous USDA officials got, Detwiler said. "It just increases your chances of something getting away, the longer (the animals) are out there." From the owners' perspective, there is nothing to "get away." They are convinced that their animals are healthy -- or at worst have scrapie, which crops up in several dozen sheep across the United States each year. Scrapie shares certain characteristics with mad cow disease. Both illnesses can incubate for years before attacking an animal's central nervous system. Both show up with the same awful symptoms: animals slipping, falling, scraping against fences and, eventually dying -- their brains having turned spongy. But scrapie has been around in sheep for 250 years and has never, as far as scientists can tell, jumped the species barrier to infect humans. Mad cow disease has, with devastating results. The USDA maintains that the Vermont sheep -- which were imported from Europe in 1996 -- could have been exposed to feed tainted with mad cow disease before they came to the United States. There has never been a documented case of a farm sheep coming down with mad cow. But scientists have proved in the lab that it is possible. The USDA has promised to pay the owners of the sheep fair market value, but Thomas Amidon, the attorney representing Houghton Freeman, who owns the flock seized Wednesday, said an exact price has not yet been determined. The USDA offered the farmers up to $2.4-million for their flocks last year, but they refused, deciding instead to continue their court fight. The second disputed flock of about 140 sheep is owned by Larry and Linda Faillace of East Warren. Linda Faillace said Wednesday she felt "anger, frustration, disbelief" and accused the USDA of failing to heed science. "That's what makes us so angry. USDA builds up public hysteria over a species that doesn't get the disease," she said. -- Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
