Last week, researchers from the European Food Safety Authority, the EU's food science watchdog, reported that Classical scrapie in the EU sheep flock has decreased where attention has been paid to developing resistance.

EFSA experts said cases of scrapie have decreased over the past ten years in countries where resistance to the disease has been factored into breeding programmes, such as the UK, and sheep have been effectively bred for resistance to the disease.

The Authority has assessed the state of scrapie in the EU since the introduction ten years ago of a series of measures to monitor and control the disease. The fatal disease affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats, it belongs to the same family as cattle disease BSE (although there is no evidence that scrapie has ever been transmitted to humans).

As with BSE, the infectious agent is thought to be an abnormal form of a protein called a prion. The name scrapie comes from symptoms displayed by infected animals, which scrape their fleeces off against rocks, trees or fences; suggesting the disease causes itching sensation for the sufferer.
Certain breeds are known to be more susceptible to scrapie than others.
EFSA's Panel on Biological Hazards concluded in late July that an eradication policy that relies only on the detection and culling of infected flocks, and does not include breeding programmes to create a more resistant flock, is unlikely to succeed. They said this is both because of the characteristics of the disease and because the classical scrapie agent can persist in the environment for years.

Giuseppe Ru, Chair of EFSA's Working Group on scrapie, said, "Sheep with a particular genetic makeup are resistant to Classical scrapie and breeding choices allow an increase in the flock’s resistance to the disease."
EFSA experts concluded that Classical scrapie in sheep may die out if the percentage of resistant sheep in the Bloc rises above a certain threshold. Although the disease is known to affect animals in Europe (where 17 member states have reported cases) and North America, the major sheep breeding areas of Australia and New Zealand have remained free of scrapie.

The experts recommended strengthening surveillance activities to detect infected flocks and control the disease, increasing the implementation of breeding programmes for resistance in sheep and starting their use in goats too.

Read EFSA's Scientific Opinion on the scrapie situation in the EU after 10 years of monitoring and control in sheep and goats here.