Government scientists have found evidence to suggest that BSE may have infected sheep – something that was until now considered to be only a theoretical possibility.
The preliminary findings of an experiment designed to test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in sheep could, if confirmed, fatally undermine an industry already sufferingfrom the biggest crisis in its history.
The Food Standards Agency issued a guarded statement yesterday about the experiment, designed to test for BSE in the early 1990s when the cattle epidemic was at its height.
The agency said the results "could be compatible with BSE having been in sheep at that time" although the findings are neither complete nor clear.
Scientists have told the agency that although the experiment has more than a year to run, there are early signs that some of the sheep diagnosed in the early 1990s with scrapie – a degenerative brain disease similar to BSE but harmless to humans – may actually have been suffering from BSE, caught as a result of eating contaminated meat and bonemeal made from rendered cattle carcasses.
If sheep did have BSE 10 years ago, the disease could since then have become endemic in the nation's breeding flock of 20 million animals, and BSE-infected lamb could have entered the human food chain.
Confirmation of the results would automatically lead to a tightening up of safety measures designed to protect consumers, with a more extensive ban on sheep offal and a possible prohibition on mutton from older animals.
The experiment, carried out by government scientists at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, Berkshire, involved "pooling" the brains of about 3,000 sheep thought to be infected with scrapie and injecting the material into a panel of five genetically distinct strains of mice.
