WRITTEN QUESTION E-4037/97 by Joaquín Sisó Cruellas (PPE) to the Commission (14 January 1998)

Subject: Scrapie in sheep

The possible connection between bovine encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and the sheep infection known as scrapie or the staggers makes it necessary to take certain precautionary measures. The English name refers to the animals' compulsive rubbing that is symptomatic of this disease. Scrapie causes acute itching, progressive loss of motor coordination, paralysis and death. The disease has become topical because of the appearance of bovine encephalopathy and its spread to humans, since both diseases are caused by an unconventional infectious substance, the prion, which affects humans and animals. The main source of infection in sheep derives from adding to the flock animals reared on infected farms, either by direct contagion or by transmission from the parent sheep. Scrapie develops very slowly over a period of two to ten months, is progressive and fatal, and infected animals are usually more than a year old, tending to be between two and four, with a clear loss of wool. Tissue damage is limited to the normal pattern of encephalopathy, with the same appearance as in mad cow disease, and there is still no treatment or special vaccine, making it necessary to destroy all the infected animals and their progeny.

In view of the major impact throughout European society of the issue of mad cow disease, has the Commission carried out any research to ascertain the actual extent of the impact of scrapie on the European flock?

- If so, what results have been obtained? If not, does it intend to do so?

- What precautionary measures are being taken to prevent this disease becoming 'mad sheep disease'?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (17 February 1998)

The Honourable Member is correct in making a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie, which is a spongiform encephalopathy of sheep and goats. Both are members of the group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and one hypothesis for the appearance of BSE in cattle is that it was the result of feeding them on meat-and-bone meal containing the scrapie agent.

It must be emphasised that scrapie has been recognised in sheep for more than two hundred years and exists almost everywhere in the world that sheep are kept. Despite this, there is no known link between scrapie and any disease of humans. However, BSE has been transmitted experimentally to sheep by feeding them with brain material from BSE-infected cattle, producing a disease clinically similar to scrapie. Although the feeding of sheep and goats on protein derived from ruminants has been banned in the Community since 1994, there is a remote possibility that BSE could affect sheep and be mistaken for scrapie.

For this reason, the Commission has included the high risk tissues of sheep and goats in its Decision 97/534/EC of 30 July 1997 on the prohibition of the use of material presenting risks as regards transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ((OJ L 216, 8.8.1997. )).

A requirement to notify the suspicion or appearance of scrapie to the authorities of the Member State concerned was laid down in Council Directive 91/68/EC of 28 January 1991 on animal health conditions governing intra-Community trade in ovine and caprine animals ((OJ L 46, 19.2.1991. )). Member States have different national requirements for the surveillance of scrapie, and the Commission is currently developing a proposal for Community rules on the surveillance of TSEs. This is expected to be ready for presentation to the Council in the second half of 1998 and will, when adopted, provide the information suggested by the Honourable Member.