CALGARY – A tough control program has reduced the dangers of Canadian sheep getting the brain-destroying disease scrapie.
Rendered sheep offal from animals infected with the disease and fed as protein supplements to cattle has been blamed for causing mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Canada is free of BSE, but scrapie occasionally appears, says an Agriculture Canada official.
“We cannot say we are scrapie free but they are very few and far between,” said Stan Petran.
In the last 10 years there have been about 50 cases in Canada and with the exception of British Columbia, all provinces reported incidents of the disease in that period.
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Canada demands the compulsory slaughter of animals that show signs of the disease, as well as animals that are considered high risk such as siblings or the dam of the animal, said Petran.
Animals incinerated
When the disease is diagnosed those animals are destroyed and incinerated to keep them out of the food chain. Low risk animals are permanently identified with a special ear tag and monitored.
Recognized for the last 200 years, scrapie is a neurological disorder. Infected animals scratch extensively, then lose co-ordination and die. Incubation is two to three years but once the animal exhibits the symptoms it dies within a couple months.
The youngest sheep in Canada to be diagnosed with scrapie was about a year and half old, said Petran.
It is suspected the disease can be passed on during lambing when newborns come in contact with afterbirth from infected ewes. Petran said animals don’t appear to pick up the disease from manure or urine in a field.
