No further scrapie cases found after outbreak: Finnish ministry

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2004

HELSINKI (AFP) — No additional cases of scrapie have been detected in Finland after a sheep on a northern farm was diagnosed last week with the brain-wasting illness similar to mad cow disease, according to the Finnish government.

On June 29 the agriculture and forestry ministry confirmed the Nordic country's first-ever outbreak of scrapie in a sheep after an eight-year-old sow on a small farm in northern Finland died of the illness.

After destroying and testing all animals on the affected farm, as well as herds on two nearby ranches that may have been in contact with the infected sow, the ministry said on Monday that it had found no additional cases.

Similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, scrapie is not transmittable to...