USDA Seizes Vermont Sheep

March 22, 2001

USDA has removed a flock of 233 quarantined sheep from a private farm in Vermont. The sheep had been exposed to feed contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopahty (BSE). The animals will be sent to Ames, IA, where they will be killed and tested for BSE and other diseases, but it will be at least two years before the tests will be finalized.

The sheep, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands in 1996, were placed under certain federal restrictions when they entered the country as part of USDA's scrapie control efforts. In 1998, USDA learned that it was likely that sheep from Europe were exposed to feed contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. At that time, the state of Vermont, at the request of USDA, imposed a quarantine on these flocks, which prohibited slaughter or sale for breeding purposes.

On July 10, 2000, several sheep from the flock tested positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. TSE is a class of degenerative neurological diseases that is characterized by a very long incubation period and a 100 percent mortality rate. Two of the better known varieties of TSE are BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep. Unlike BSE, there is no evidence that scrapie poses a risk to human health. Based on current testing methodology, there is no way to determine whether the sheep have BSE or scrapie.

USDA issued a declaration July 14, 2000, of extraordinary emergency to acquire the sheep. This action was contested by the flock owners. A federal district court judge ruled in favor of USDA based on the merits of the case. The flock owners appealed to the Second Circuit Court requesting a stay, which was denied.

The sheep will be transported to USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, where they will be humanely killed. Tissue samples will be collected from the sheep for diagnostic testing, but Linda Detwiler, USDA senior staff veterinarian, said it would be at least two years before lab mice tests could determine if the sheep had BSE.

The owners will be compensated for the fair market value of the sheep.

"While we understand this is a very difficult time for the flock owners, USDA has no choice but to take this decisive action based on the threat the sheep pose to the health of America's livestock nationwide," said Craig Reed, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.