March 24, 2001

More Vt. Sheep Arrive at Iowa Lab

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AMES, Iowa (AP) -- A second flock of Vermont sheep suspected of having been exposed

to a form of mad cow disease arrived Saturday at a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinary

laboratory for testing.

The 126 East Friesian milking sheep were seized Friday from a farm at East Warren, Vt.

The owners, Larry and Linda Faillace, had fought to keep their flock, urging officials to first

complete tests on a flock of 234 sheep confiscated Wednesday from a farm in Greensboro, Vt.

Their request was denied.

The government says some of the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow disease through

contaminated feed before they were imported from Europe in 1996.

The Greensboro flock arrived at the lab Thursday. Lab workers began killing the sheep and

taking brain samples Friday.

Four of those sheep had earlier tested positive for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy,

or TSE, a family of diseases that includes both bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow

disease, and scrapie, a common sheep disease that doesn't affect humans.

Nearly 100 people in Europe have died of a human form of BSE since 1995, but no cases have

been confirmed in the United States.

Testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames will determine which of the TSE

strains the sheep contracted.

Sheep brain tissue will be injected into mice, said Dr. Linda Detwiler, senior staff veterinarian with

the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Damage to the brain tissue of the mice

will tell scientists what strain of TSE the sheep had. It will take two to three years before results are known.

``There is importance to our public to reassure them that we are doing everything possible to protect

our country from any diseases or concern to animals or to the public,''

Dr. William Buisch, acting director at the lab, said Thursday.