Story

Vermont Sheep May Have Mad Cow By Wilson Ring

Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, March 21, 2001; 8:41 a.m. EST

GREENSBORO, Vt. –– Federal agents went to a farm early Wednesday to seize sheep feared infected with a version of the mad cow disease.

Houghton Freeman's flock of 233 sheep is one of two that has been at the center of a storm of protests since the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered that they be seized and destroyed. The department says the sheep, imported from Belgium, could be carrying a disease akin to mad cow disease.

Ed Curlett of the USDA, speaking from the Freeman farm, confirmed the seizure was under way. Inspectors arrived between 6 a.m. and 6:30 and trucks arrived around two hours later, he said.

The sheep are to be taken to federal laboratories in Iowa for scientists there to take samples from their brains to study. They will eventually be slaughtered.

"We intend to collect the sheep," Curlett said. "We are very grateful for the owner's cooperation."

The other disputed flock, 140 sheep, is owned by Larry and Linda Faillace of Warren. They were to be seized later, and they will receive notice the night before the seizure, as Freeman did, Curlett said.

The seizure at the Freeman farm came one day after supporters of the owners held the latest in a series of protests, marching to the Vermont offices of the three members of the state's congressional delegation. All three have supported the seizure.

The government says the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow disease through contaminated feed before they were imported from Europe in 1996. The owners say the sheep are healthy and the tests are not conclusive. They have urged that the sheep be studied and tested more extensively.

After losing their case in U.S. District Court in February, the Faillaces and Freeman appealed to the federal circuit court and asked that the seizure order be put on hold until the case had worked its way through the courts.

The circuit court refused to stay the seizure order last week but said it would hear the appeal.

The USDA maintains that four of the sheep culled from Freeman's flock showed signs of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. That is a class of neurological diseases that includes both bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and scrapie, a sheep disease that is not harmful to humans.

The government says the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow disease through contaminated feed before they were imported from Europe in 1996, and have quarantined the sheep since 1998.

The human version of BSE, which like the animal version has a lengthy incubation period, has killed almost 100 people in Great Britain since 1995, when it virtually wiped out the British beef industry.

-- (he@lth.watch), March 21, 2001