Scrapie - a point of view

Authors: O'Hara PJ
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 25, Issue 12, pp 400-401, Dec 1977
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Biosecurity, Notifiable organisms/exotic disease, Nervous system/neurology, Spongiform encephalopathies, Disease/defect, Infectious disease
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: With all of the scope for disagreement on scientific grounds that our imperfect understanding of scrapie allows, it is unfortunate that Professor Bruere has allowed emotive argument to colour his point of view of the disease. Veterinarians, agriculturalists and farmers need hardly be reminded of the importance of the sheep industry in New Zealand or of the progress that the industry has made, The decision to explore the value of breeds such as the East Friesian, Finnish Landrace, Oldenburg and Oxford Down was made by a group of responsible people representing the industry, the universities and government after due consideration of points for and against and after taking advice from a great many sources. Their objective was to ensure that the sheep industry had the information from which further progress might flow. It is quite wrong to suggest that complacency had crept in following the successful eradication of scrapie from NZ in 1952 and 1954…

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