DATE=1/14/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-272576

TITLE=E-U / MAD SHEEP DISEASE? (L-O)

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=BRUSSELS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Scientists advising the European Union have drawn up a pre-emptive battle plan in case a form of mad cow disease should turn up in sheep. Correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the scientists have told the E-U Executive Commission that there is not enough information to conclude what the potential risk is to humans from eating sheep with the disease.

TEXT: As if the scare about contaminated beef that is sweeping Europe were not bad enough, now comes a warning about the possibility of infected sheep and goats.

The E-U Scientific Steering Committee says there is no evidence that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as mad-cow disease, is present in sheep. But, despite this lack of evidence, the scientists from across the 15-nation bloc have indicated measures that should be taken if that possibility arises.

The Commission's spokeswoman on consumer protection affairs, Beate Gminder, says the best way to protect human beings from contaminated animals is to remove what the Commission calls - specific risk materials - such as the brain and spinal cord from the food chain.

/// GMINDER ACT ///

There is no BSE in sheep discovered in any natural circumstances. If, however, you infect sheep with a BSE brain of a cow, then they will get BSE. The best possible protection of animals is not to feed them any animal meal.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Gminder says the European Union has always taken sheep and goats into account when formulating measures to deal with mad-cow disease. As a precautionary measure, E-U legislation last October mandated removal of specific risk materials from sheep and goat carcasses headed for the food chain.

/// OPT /// The E-U scientists say it is necessary for food safety authorities to start collecting the information required for assessing the possibility that scrapie the ovine version of mad cow disease may be present in sheep. They say that if mad cow disease or scrapie are found in sheep, more tissues would have to be removed from sheep than is normally the case with cattle before they are allowed to remain in the food chain. /// END OPT ///

Besides calling for more B-S-E tests of sheep and the registration of sheep flocks throughout Europe, the scientists advise that strict eradication measures will have to be applied to sheep and goats if they are found to be carrying mad cow disease or its sheep equivalent.

But Commission spokeswoman Gminder tried to reassure reporters that there is no problem so far with sheep and that the scientific report is only a precautionary risk assessment. (SIGNED)

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