3/27/01

By CAROL KINSLEY

One hundred twenty-five innocent lambs, rams and ewes are on their way to slaughter, according to Dr. Larry Faillace of Warren, Vt.
Faillace believes his flock, and the 234 sheep taken from another Vermont farm earlier last week are victims in “a witch hunt” conducted by the USDA.
“Why should anyone be afraid of sheep that are certified healthy?” he questioned. “There have been 500 negative test results to show there is nothing wrong with these sheep,” Faillace said.
USDA, under the authority of the U.S. District Court, removed Faillace’s flock on March 23 and had removed Houghton Freeman’s flock on March 22. A third flock of 20 sheep was sold to the government earlier.
The sheep, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands in 1996, were placed under federal restrictions when they entered the country as part of USDA’s scrapie control efforts. In 1998, USDA learned that it was likely that sheep from Europe were exposed to feed contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). At that time, the state of Vermont, at the request of USDA, imposed a quarantine on these flocks, which prohibited slaughter or sale for breeding purposes.
On July 10, 2000, several sheep from the flock tested positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. TSE is a class of degenerative neurological diseases that is characterized by a very long incubation period and a 100 percent mortality rate. Two of the better known varieties of TSE are BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep. Unlike BSE, there is no evidence that scrapie poses a risk to human health. Based on current testing methodology, USDA says, there is no way to determine whether the sheep have BSE or scrapie. On July 14, USDA issued a declaration of extraordinary emergency to acquire the sheep. This action was contested by the flock owners. A federal district court judge ruled in favor of USDA based on the merits of the case. The flock owners appealed to the Second Circuit Court requesting a stay, which was denied.
The sheep were transported to USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, where they will be humanely euthanized. Tissue samples will be collected for diagnostic testing.
According to USDA, the owners will be compensated for the fair market value of the sheep.
“While we understand this is a very difficult time for both flock owners, the removal of these sheep from Vermont’s pastures concludes a determined effort by USDA to safeguard American agriculture against the threat posed by these animals,” said Craig A. Reed, administrator of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The United States has never had a confirmed case of BSE.
The current situation in Europe highlights USDA’s important role in safeguarding America’s livestock from such devastating foreign animal diseases.
Susan Schoenian, a shepherd and Wicomico County Extension livestock agent, said the USDA action was understandable. “APHIS and the livestock industry aren’t willing to take the risk — no matter how remote that risk is. It ought to be a wake up call for the shepherds to enroll in the scrapie program. The risks are just too high.”
Faillace and his wife are much aware of the problem with BSE in Great Britain. They lived in England from 1990 to 1993 and worked at the University of Nottingham School of Agriculture with the head of the department who advised the British about BSE. “We worked with him on these issues,” said Faillace, who holds a doctorate in animal science.
Faillace said he and his wife, Linda, started the voluntary scrapie inspection program in Vermont. “We could see what was coming down the road with BSE in Europe.” He added he would no longer recommend that people join the program.
“The federal government used the program against us. They are disingenuous over the goals of the program. People should be very, very careful,” he cautioned.
When the couple sought East Friesan sheep to bring to the United States for breeding and making cheese, they did a lot of research. At that time — 1996 — the connection between BSE and the use of feed contaminated with parts of sheep was well known, Faillace said, “but USDA didn’t feel it was important enough to include in the protocol for importation.” He and his wife, however, “questioned hard about the feeding practices” in all of the flocks they looked at. “We made sure the animals were never fed meat and bone meal.” They have records from the flock owners and from feed mills certified by the Belgian government. They have sent these official feed documents to the USDA.
“The USDA says it is a theoretical possibility that sheep can get BSE. It’s okay to theorize, but in making decisions, you have to use facts and science. It is a fact that no sheep on the planet has ever gotten BSE,” Faillace emphasized. “No TSE was ever seen in these sheep or the source flocks. USDA says they are most concerned that the sheep came in contact with contaminated feed.”
Faillace said, “USDA refused to do a testing program without killing all the sheep. There is a new, live animal test — the third eyelid test — not fully validated, but USDA has enough faith in it to include it in the new scrapies surveillance program.” The test requires only a tiny piece of the eyelid and could be done repeatedly to monitor the sheep and determine there is no TSE.”
There is also a brain test used in slaughtered cattle in Europe, he noted. “They can test thousands in a short period of time. In France they are testing 40,000 cattle a week — all slaughtered cattle over 30 months of age. They do it in 24 hours. The carcass hangs in the slaughter house until they get the test results. USDA does not want to do that test because then they’d have to start testing cattle,” Faillace charged. “The United States has only tested 12,000 cattle since 1990. They are dragging their feet not to have comprehensive testing and in international circles, have come under a lot of heat for that.”
Faillace suggested the “witch hunt” had started in 1998 when Dr. Linda Detweiler, USDA’s chief expert on BSE, began getting political pressure from western beef cattle producers and the pharmaceutical companies (which are tied to the beef industry because of products used in cosmetics, for example). The effort is to protect the perception of the cattle industry, Faillace said.
Federal officials arriving at Faillace’s farm at dawn were met by protesters. There had been a candlelight vigil the night before, despite 2 feet of wet, heavy snow. “Only in Vermont in the middle of a blizzard will you get 40 people to come out to honor some sheep,” Faillace said.
“It was a very emotional, difficult situation,” he said. Three Faillace children — Francis, 16; Heather, 15; and 14-year-old Jackie, “America’s youngest cheese maker” — were given the option to be present or not as their sheep were loaded onto a truck. “What else could we do but be there?” Faillace said.
It was especially difficult for Faillace to lose his Beltex flock, the only flock of these heavy-muscled sheep in the world outside of the British Isles and Belgium. If the original flocks are lost to fears of foot-and-mouth disease, “this could be extinction of a breed,” he said.
The family will remain on the 93-acre farm, headquarters of the local Grange and site of a large cooperative vegetable growing operation with 30 members.
There are the cheese making facilities ... “We make excellent cheese,” Faillace said. “We may just buy milk in.” They make take a while to think it all over, he said. “We are definitely committed to agriculture. I imagine we will definitely move in the direction of educating the public.
“This battle did not end today. In many ways it has just begun. It became very clear to us quite a while ago that we are not just fighting for our sheep but for small farmers everywhere.
“USDA should never be able to operate in this heavy-handed way and not follow their own rules, not follow the laws Congress set out for them and, basically, have no excuse why they’re not following them.
“What they basically did was concocted a phantom disease of sheep, and by blaming our sheep of possibly having such a disease, have implicated sheep everywhere.
“I particularly feel badly for shepherds in Europe, because we had European sheep. This implicates them. They have enough on their plates right now. Obviously, this affects every American sheep farmer.”
Faillace said USDA had hidden many negative test results, releasing them only after a Freedom of Information Act request was filed. He also said the four positives reported by USDA were obtained under questionable circumstances using an experimental test in a lab that was not an approved diagnostic laboratory of USDA. There were no negative controls; the test was run only once, he said. “The clincher is that when he was done running the test once, he destroyed the tissue so no one else could test it. The USDA’s whole case is built on that faulty data.
In a hearing challenging the validity of the test, Faillace’s lawyer said destroying the sheep would ruin the business they had started. “They are irreplaceable. There are no comparable animals that can be obtained.”