Atypical scrapie

Friday 7 November 2008

Scientific tests have identified a brain disease in sheep called atypical scrapie. The disease comes from the same family of diseases as 'classical' scrapie in sheep (which has been around for over 200 years and is not known to be harmful to people) and BSE in cattle (from which humans can get the fatal disease variant CJD).

Atypical scrapie is not BSE, and there is an absence of scientific evidence that it can be transmitted to humans or that it is of any risk to humans. However, a risk can't be ruled out.

The Agency, and other organisations across Europe, are organising research into atypical scrapie, but it could take years for any conclusions to be reached.

As part of its commitment to be open and transparent, the Agency will update consumers in line with the latest developments in research into atypical scrapie or as new information arises.

The Agency Board discussed atypical scrapie at its open meeting in March 2006. At its June 2006 open meeting, the Board asked the Agency to issue information to keep consumers and stakeholders up to date with what we know about atypical scrapie.

The Agency has summarised below its latest understanding of atypical scrapie. This summary has been drawn up in consultation with scientists, consumer bodies and industry organisations.

• Atypical scrapie has been identified in sheep throughout Europe. How common it is outside Europe is not known. European countries test extensively for atypical scrapie. Many non-European sheep-producing countries do not.
• Scientists estimate that only a small proportion of sheep in Great Britain (approximately one in 400) may be infected with the disease.
• Diseases similar to atypical scrapie include 'classical' scrapie, which has been around for hundreds of years and is not known to infect people, and BSE in cattle, which can be transmitted to people when it is known as vCJD. All of these diseases have long incubation periods, but they lead to irreversible brain damage and death in infected animals. vCJD also leads to the death of infected humans.
• Scientists have so far found no evidence that atypical scrapie can be transmitted to people or that it is dangerous to people, but some believe that such a risk is possible in theory.
• The Food Standards Agency and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK are among a number of organisations within Europe funding research into atypical scrapie using a range of different experimental methods to assess whether atypical scrapie might pose a risk to people.
• The Agency is not advising people to change their eating habits with regard to lamb or mutton (sheep meat) and goat meat or products derived from these animals.
• Some measures are already in place to protect us against BSE. For example, even though no sheep have been found to have BSE, many parts of these animals are removed as a precautionary measure and not allowed to go into our food. These are the parts that would also most likely be infected with atypical scrapie if an animal had the disease.
• Additional measures would be considered by the Agency if atypical scrapie were found to be of risk to people.
• If there were any risk to humans from sheep being infected with atypical scrapie it would be greater in older animals. It has also been calculated that in sheep with scrapie (and in sheep with BSE, when they are infected experimentally with the disease) it would be impossible to remove all traces of the infectivity from the animals' intestines when the intestines are made into sausage casings. This may also apply in the case of atypical scrapie.
• While there may be no risk to humans from atypical scrapie, anyone wishing to take extra precautionary measures might decide to stop eating meat from older sheep (mutton) or sausages covered in wet skins (casings) made from sheep intestines. Not all pre-packed sausages are labelled to say what their skins, or 'casings' are made from. However, some labels do provide such details, and butchers may also be able to provide information on what casings are used on their sausages.
• The Agency is not recommending that people take such actions, and recognises that it is not always possible to know if the meat comes from older sheep.
• The majority of meat from sheep eaten in the UK is lamb. Meat from older sheep (mutton) represents just less than 20% of the total sheep market. Meat from about 6000 goats goes into the food chain in the UK each year, plus imported meat from goats, which total 257 tonnes in 2007.
• Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Indian and Pakistani communities in the UK eat a proportionately higher amount of mutton than their counterparts in other communities. There is similar anecdotal evidence that people from the UK's African and Caribbean communities eat proportionately more meat from goats.