Interest In Report On Scrapie Disease

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30342, 18 January 1964, Page 8

Interest In Report On Scrapie Disease

Some interest has been shown, in an account of research into scrapie disease in sheep in Britain recently published on these pages. This account was based on a report prepared by Mr R. J. Knowles, of Palmerston, Otago, In clarifying a section of the report describing the study of susceptibility to the disease in 24 breeds of sheep at the Compton Research Station, Mr Knowles says it must be clearly understood that the authorities are not able to say at this stage that the Dorset Down breed as a whole is not susceptible to scrapie; although in the particular experiment mentioned it was the breed with the least susceptibility. In his report, Mr Knowles said that the ultimate result of the 24-breed experiment at Compton was a demonstration of varying susceptibility to the agent (scrapie transmissible agent) ranging from nil in certain breeds to 78 per cent in others. It was emphasised that these resllts should not be regarded as applying to any breed as a whole, but merely to that sample of the breed which was tested. In other words, the belief is held that there is not only variation in susceptibility to scrapie be-

tween breeds, but between families within breeds. Thus the existence of a family, of say Herdwicks resistant to scrapie, or of a family of Dorset Downs susceptitile to the disease, cannot be ruled out.

It had also been emphasised that the results achieved in the 24-breed experiment were not claimed to be applicable to any breed in its entirety. The results of the experiments were sufficiently interesting to warrant the setting up of the present genetic experiment using Herdwicks and Dorset Downs —the breeds at the opposite ends of the .susceptibility spectrum—with the object of ultimately producing flocks of sheep which will be respectively 100 per cent susceptible and 100 per cent resistant to scrapie.