By SEAN POULTER
A NEW brain disease in sheep might infect humans, Government experts have warned.
The condition is similar to mad cow disease and classic scrapie, a brain-wasting disease which has been known to exist in sheep for more than 100 years.
The discovery has triggered concerns that the public could be at risk from eating lamb, while Government experts are to consider slaughtering flocks of sheep where the disease is detected.
Last night the consumer group Which? demanded the Government tell the public whether there is a health concern.
They are calling for ‘urgent’ laboratory tests on both mice and monkeys to understand whether the disease can be transmitted to humans.
The Food Standards Agency also accepts there is a risk the disease could be passed to humans and is to discuss the issue at a board meeting next week.
The ‘mad sheep disease’ has been found in flocks raised in Britain and Europe, including France, Germany, Norway and Portugal.
In the last few days, two farms in central France have been quarantined after the disease was found in sheep sent for slaughter.
As many as 82,000 British sheep could be infected with the disease from a national sheep flock of 14million.
Which? chief policy adviser Sue Davies said: ‘We need urgent answers to the many uncertainties surrounding this finding so that there is a better understanding of whether there are any human health implications and, if so, whether existing control measures are adequate.’ There is no evidence that scrapie could pass to humans. However, the new atypical scrapie has different characteristics suggesting human transmission is possible.
The Government’s expert committee investigating human and animal brain diseases, SEAC, has issued a report flagging up its concerns.
Scientific tests to date suggest that brain tissue from infected sheep can pass on the disease to other sheep.
Consequently, other sheep tissue could also be a risk.
The SEAC report warns: ‘As atypical scrapie is experimentally transmissible, the possibility that it may be transmissible to humans must be considered.’
SEAC said that at the moment it is in the dark as to how the disease is spread between animals. However, it it said ‘the possibility that it has spread through feed cannot be excluded.’ SEAC concluded: ‘There is no evidence of a risk to human health, but a theoretical risk cannot be excluded.
‘Comparative transmission studies with humanised mice and other species including primates are urgently needed to inform on the potential risk to human health.’ The Food Standards Agency has signalled that it takes the warnings seriously.
A spokesman said: ‘The FSA has always been open about the uncertainty surrounding the possible risk of BSE and other brain diseases in sheep.
‘Much more work is needed before we can form a clearer picture of what, if any, risk there might be to people.
‘Whilst FSA advice remains that we are not advising people to stop eating sheep and goats, this issue will be discussed thoroughly by our board and kept under review as evidence emerges.’ The FSA is to look at measures necessary to reduce any risk to the public. This could involve slaughtering any flocks where cases are found.
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