Does Anyone Have Experience with SCRAPIES????

[Legamin]

I do NOT currently (nor have I ever had) an issue with Scrapies but I contacted the FDA and signed up my farm as a reporting entity once I read about the dangerous and contagious nature of this disease. I have watched YouTube videos of diseased animals and spoken with people who have had the problem in the past but it seems to be rare enough of an occurrence in our area that no one has seen it first hand or dealt with it.
I would love to hear from someone that has dealt with it FIRSTHAND and with their OWN flock. How did it first present, what was your first response and how thorough were you in carcass disposal? I like to be prepared have a check list and have all supplies right at my fingertips when the need arises. I got my tags and specialized Federal Scrapies FDA Ear Tag Applicator…(can you imagine the federal government developing their OWN non-standardized ear tag applicator that doesn’t work with ANY OTHER TAG??! (of course you can because it is a federally funded operation!). You would think that this is a strategic national security operation or something!
Anyways…If you have dealt with it, please share how you overcame the problem and got your flock healthy again.

 

[Baymule]

No scrapie here. But I have my free 100 tags and the $35 applicator. Well, ok, not 100 tags anymore.

If you take sheep to slaughter, they don’t have to be scrapie tagged. If you take sheep to auction or sell to an individual, they must be scrapie tagged.

You may be overreacting a little bit here. You have a healthy flock. Investigate any source you buy from and isolate in quarantine any new sheep you buy. From what I understand, there is very little scrapie anymore. The scrapie tag is so if any sheep gets scrapie, the government officials can trace it back to the farm it came from.

 

[Legamin]

Many of the shepherds that I nave spoken with are from the UK and there are dire tales of entire county sides of flocks having to be bull dozed into heaps and burned like cordwood. I do understand that the likelihood of that with the modern safety systems and reporting in place make that scenario unrealistic…and that a good story only gets better over time. But I have heard of random cases and since there are YT videos of such animals with symptoms it must still exist somewhere. I have an isolation pasture with shelter an am not too worried if I need to eradicate a sick animal from the flock. I was just hoping there was someone who had dealt with it and could share the experience to have a better idea what to look for what to expect.

 

[Baymule]

You are wise to be prepared for emergency situations. Just don't let horror stories scare you. Yes, scrapie exists and it is deadly. Keep a healthy flock. Quarentine any new arrivials and you can even have a vet health check them. I am enjoying your posts, you bring a new dimension to the forum with your knowledge.

 

[Legamin]

You are wise to be prepared for emergency situations. Just don't let horror stories scare you. Yes, scrapie exists and it is deadly. Keep a healthy flock. Quarentine any new arrivials and you can even have a vet health check them. I am enjoying your posts, you bring a new dimension to the forum with your knowledge.

Thanks, I have some older friends around the world in places we have lived who can spin a great story of deadly plague and the horrors of war…(sadly, many of the latter are not exaggerated at all). I function best in ‘checklist mode’. As a career medical professional turned physicist I break everything down to the smallest moment and follow through until the final result is known. It’s how my mind works. But I find I function best when I have real world knowledge. That was my only purpose in asking the question. It sounds like the frequency of this disease warrants no more than the current preparations in place for it. A quarantine paddock, a disinfected unused barn dressed and ready for the occupation of animals with medical needs. We lucked out on our small acreage in that it used to be the central piece of land holding all the mechanical and physical facilities for a 1000 acre active dairy farm…the largest in this area at the time. Our home was the centre of the community and the six functioning out buildings, 4 barns, wood shop, machine shop (there was much more before the super wind storms of 2015 which took out the milking sheds and six mechanical bays filled with heavy equipment)..before my time here. My point is that I have a well organized set of structures surrounding prime pasture which perfectly lends itself to the daily sheep needs as well as the emergencies. If I am hearing everyone correctly then I am already doing what I need to do. Keeping my head on a swivel and watching for health issues when they first start and keeping the flock moving…separating the sick or questionable..eating the genetically inferior (Sub-rebreeding standard).
I dearly appreciate all the advice. my fondest memories have always been of having my nose in a book and eagerly learning something new. Now that I am older that is the one things that continues unabated. My sheep are helping keep my mind sharp and constantly learning how I can serve them better…(and at what temperature….)
we were faced with a choice 6 years ago. Head to Florida and join a senior community in the sun…or buy a small farm outright and build something for our children with our final years…there are days I miss Florida…but then I go out to feed the sheep and that old thrill returns!

 

[Margali]

The other contagious sheep disease which are common are Caseous lymphadenitis (CL), Ovine Johnes disease (OJD), and Scabby mouth (contagious ecthyma, orf). You can test for several of them. The Merk's vet manual has good descriptions, https://www.merckvetmanual.com/.

 

[Ridgetop]

Scrapie is the ovine variety of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, aka "mad cow". Both these diseases can be transmitted to humans in a variant called Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. This is a fatal disease with no cure.

There is no cure for these diseases, there is no vaccine for these diseases, and there is no test that can be performed on a living animal for these diseases. The only test for the disease is to examine brain tissue from a dead animal.

When scrapie or BSE are suspected in a sheep or cow, the animal is euthanized, and the brain examined. If scrapie is found to be present, the normal prevention of the spread is to euthanize the entire flock or herd. Premises are quarantined. The carcasses are usually burned. Scrapie and mad cow in sheep and cows is considered a national health emergency and it is required to be reported to the authorities by the veterinarian or identifying agency.

The UK, Canada and Europe were experiencing outbreaks some years ago. The destruction of entire herds and flocks of sheep and cattle (including dairy animals) was a huge loss to the economy. Mexico, Central American, and South American countries still have occasional outbreaks of these diseases. There were also a couple of outbreaks on the east coast in sheep and cattle which were eventually traced to importations primarily from Canada and Mexico. The US government stopped the importation of sheep and cattle from countries which still have outbreaks of these diseases. In addition, importation of meat products from these countries are also banned. Exportation to these countries is allowed, the ban is only one way.

After the latest surge in mad cow some years ago, the US government also banned animal feeds containing animal by-products to be fed to livestock destined for the slaughter. Since Scrape and BSE are diseases of the brain, diseased cells were found to be present in the spinal cords. Animal bones were routinely used to provide the calcium in animal feeds. These feeds are no longer allowed to be fed to animals used for human consumption. In fact, production of any animal feeds containing animal by-products are banned as is the importation of any animal feed product containing animal by products.

In response to these outbreaks worldwide, and a couple of outbreaks on the east coast, in 1992 the USDA instituted the Voluntary Scrapie Program for producers wanting to keep records of their flocks. Since then, the program has undergone many changes. The program was originally voluntary, and the USDA issued the first 100 scrapie tags. Producers were allowed to choose a flock prefix preceded by the state's ID. Currently the number of flocks on the program has grown and ID prefixes are assigned by the issuing state department. While the first 100 tags were issued free to volunteering participants, the succeeding numbered tags must now be purchased.

All animals going through an auction are now required to be tagged. If you do not have a farm scrapie tag prefix, the auction yard will tag your animal with their tag. The reason for the tags is in order to be able to trace any infected animal back to the place of origin to determine where the animal may have contracted the disease.

Sampling of individuals continues to take place in the US. Current information on number of cases, locations of cases, etc. can be found in the USDA APHIS Scrapie website.

 

[Legamin]

Very informative. That was one of the first things I signed up for and squared away when the first sheep arrived here. Thanks for all the info.

 

[Baymule]

Very informative. That was one of the first things I signed up for and squared away when the first sheep arrived here. Thanks for all the info.

We freely share our experiences here, the good, the bad, the happy, the sad. We all benefit from the success, failure, death and lives of others animals. Plus all the lurkers who are searching for information for their own animals. This is a super wonderful forum!

 

[secuono]

You can test for scrapie resistance and then breed for it.
Regular is QQ QR & RR. Testing at codon 171.
But you can further test at Codon 136.

Supposedly, there is a live test, eyelid or rectal tissue, but can not find any real proof of that or labs that do that testing.

Also, since it's so rare, most in my breed circle are now dropping caring about codon all together!
They are moving on towards testing for Johne's & OPP. Some also add CL & Q Fever if they have seen abscesses/have goats and/or have Q Fever in their area.

Use RR rams and you'll always have some resistance. Testing for it is pretty cheap and very easy. And once you know what the breeders all are, you will have less testing to do on lambs. Use a punnett square to figure out what codon they are and if they need to be tested.