TSE in sheep statement

Wednesday 7 April 2004

The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) has informed Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the devolved administrations and the Food Standards Agency about an unusual result that has arisen in the sheep Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) testing programme.

A meeting of scientific experts on 30 March concluded that tissue samples from a sheep with suspected scrapie, when analysed using various tests, did not behave like known types of scrapie. Neither did the results look the same as when sheep have been experimentally infected with BSE. However, scientists are not certain what BSE in sheep would look like were it to be transmitted from sheep to sheep. The VLA will undertake further analysis of the sample.

The findings will now be presented to the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) for further expert analysis and comment.

Work is continuing at the VLA, and elsewhere, to develop tests that differentiate between scrapie and BSE in sheep.

Uncertainties still remain on this issue. However, based on the best scientific evidence to date, the Agency’s advice to consumers remains the same. We are not advising against eating lamb and sheep meat.