Written Answers. - Animal Diseases.
Jim Higgins
Question:
54
Mr. Higgins (Mayo)
asked the
Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
if brain samples taken from sheep in respect of scrapie showed positive in respect to links with BSE; if so, the number of such cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[26574/01]
I am not aware of any brain samples taken from sheep which have tested positive for BSE under normal conditions, although sheep have been infected with the disease under experimental conditions in the UK.
The view of the scientific steering committee of the European Commission on this matter on 24 October 2001, was that there was no evidence that BSE was present in small ruminants under field conditions. However, the committee also indicated that the possibility that sheep which had been fed with meat and bone meal in the past might potentially be infected with BSE could not be ruled out. In this regard research undertaken in the UK on brain tissue taken from sheep in the early 1990s has been invalidated because it appears that the samples analysed in the course of this research may, in fact, have been tissues of bovine rather than ovine origin.
In this country, strain typing conducted in relation to a small number of sheep has not yielded any evidence that BSE is present in the sheep flock. Taking all of the above into account and discounting BSE infectivity induced in lab oratory conditions, there is to date no evidence of BSE in sheep, in this country or elsewhere.
While scrapie has been present in sheep in this country for some 200 years, there is a low incidence of the disease. It is, however, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, TSE, and notwithstanding the lack of scientific evidence linking it to BSE or CJD in humans, it may give rise to a subliminal concern on the part of consumers. For this reason, at least as much as any other, it is desirable that we seek to eradicate the disease from the national flock. The controls relevant to scrapie which are currently in operation, for example, the ban on meat and bone meal, removal of specified risk materials, testing at meat factories, research into developing genetically resistant sheep and strain typing research, have been developed in the context of controls on TSEs generally, including BSE.
In addition, Ireland has had an active surveillance programme for scrapie since 1998, testing approximately 8,000 sheep at factories each year since then. The European Commission requires member states to increase the level of testing next year and in Ireland this means that approximately 15,000 tests must be performed in 2002. In fact, it is likely that we will perform a substantially higher number of tests.
The introduction on 1 June 2001 of a national sheep identification scheme, involving individual tagging of sheep, will add significantly to the level of traceability and will assist greatly in the development of disease monitoring and eradication programmes in relation to sheep in Ireland. Acknowledging the desirability of eradicating scrapie from the national flock, I have decided to substantially expand my Department's programme for the control and eradication of scrapie. To that end, flocks which have had cases of scrapie since 1999 have been restricted and will be culled. Other flocks which have a history of scrapie are being examined and may also be slaughtered out. This depopulation component, which offers an effective means of addressing known cases of scrapie in the short term, complements the medium term element of enhanced testing and the longer term element of genetic research, all of which are components of our approach to effectively addressing the eradication of the disease.
Against the background I have described above, and taking into account the concerns of consumers and the future wellbeing of our sheep sector, I believe that our current controls and the course of action upon which we are now embarked are appropriate in the circumstances.
