Experts differ on scrapie

Press, 12 August 1978, Page 3

Experts differ on scrapie

PA Wellington New Zealand had every reason to be alarmist about scrapie on Mana Island, said the professor of veterinary medicine at Massey University, Professor N. Bruere, yesterday. He disagreed with Dr J. Stamp, a scrapie specialist who is in New Zealand to inspect the remaining sheep at Mana Island and others in quarantine near Rotorua. Dr Stamp, of Edinburgh, said that there was no need to be alarmist about scrapie, although it was a “serious economic nusiance.” Professor Bruere said that a British pamphlet about

scrapie said the disease was an international problem for genetic improvement programmes. The disease was responsible for almost all 2000 sheep in a breeding programme on Mana Island having to be slaughtered. For Dr Stamp to say there was no need to be alarmist was a “very peculiar statement to come from a man who is supposed to be a world authority,” Professor Bruere said. In one small breed of sheep alone, the Swale Beal, scrapie caused a loss of nearly S3M in Britain last year, he said. The reason for Dr Stamp’s visit should be

to minimise the risk to New Zealand’s million-dollar sheep breeding industry. The director of the Animal Health Division of the Ministry of Agriculture (Dr G. H. Adlam) said that Professor Bruere had taken an alarmist point of view, while the Ministry adhered to the view of Dr Stamp, who had specialised in the disease during 30 years of work “You’ll never get unanimity on this subject,” he said. Dr Stamp will report his findings to the Director-Gen-eral of Agriculture (Mr M. Cameron) and the Minister of Agriculture (Mr MacIn tyre) on Monday.