USDA seizes possibly diseased sheep in Vermont

Sheep in Greensboro, Vermont, are seized by federal agents and loaded onto a truck on Wednesday

In this story: Flock owners protest order Public officials back seizure RELATED STORIES

GREENSBORO, Vermont -- Federal agents in Vermont on Wednesday seized one of two flocks of sheep that may have been exposed to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of illness that includes "mad cow" disease.

No case of mad cow disease has ever been found in sheep, but the U.S. government was taking no chances.

Agents removed 233 sheep from the Greensboro, Vermont, farm of Houghton Freeman. A separate flock of about 126 sheep, related to Freeman's animals but owned by Linda and Larry Faillace of East Warren, is also slated for seizure.

VIDEO Correspondent Bridget Barry Caswell is there as the sheep are taken and talks with the shepherds Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES From the USDA: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) In Vermont Sheep Backgrounder on TSE* Vermont Sheep Questions and Answers* *requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™     MESSAGE BOARD Mad cow disease

The Faillaces' flock would be seized later, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Ed Curlett, who said they would be notified the night before the seizure, as had Freeman.

"We assume they're coming tonight," said Linda Faillace.

The sheep were to be shipped to Ames, Iowa, for slaughter and testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Curlett said.

The USDA ordered the flocks slaughtered after tests last summer showed four sheep from Freeman's flock may have transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a class of neurological diseases that includes both BSE, or mad cow disease, and scrapie, a disease that is fatal to sheep, but not harmful to humans.

Wednesday's seizure was the first in the United States because of concerns over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). But a Lyndonville, Vermont, owner voluntarily handed his flock of 21 sheep -- also related to the Freeman-Fallaice flocks -- last summer. Those sheep were destroyed.

Flock owners protest order

BSE has been linked to the degenerative human brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a devastating illness that is always fatal. Nearly 90 people have died from the disease in Europe.

The USDA believes the Vermont sheep, imported from Belgium in 1996 -- in the midst of Europe's mad cow disease crisis -- may have been exposed to the disease through contaminated feed consumed by their ancestors.

The East Fresian sheep, valued for their dairy production, were quarantined in 1998 and tested repeatedly for signs of the disease.

But the families who own the animals say their sheep are healthy and the government tests are inconclusive. They took their case to court, but lost in U.S. District Court in February. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case April 10 but refused to put the USDA order on hold pending its outcome.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul van de Graaf notified the attorney for one of the families March 13 that the USDA had "decided to seize your client's flock sometime in the next three weeks."

Public officials back seizure

The Faillaces and Freeman garnered a wave of public support, but very little from Vermont officials, including the three members of the state's congressional delegation, all of whom have supported the seizure.

"Too little is yet known about this disease, but we do know that it is deadly and that it has the potential to spread quickly, widely and insidiously if not handled early. We wish there was a sound alternative to the removal of these flocks, but there is not," Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Republican Sen. James Jeffords and independent Rep. Bernard Sanders said in a joint statement last week.

State Rep. Kinny Connell, D-Warren, sponsored a resolution calling for the USDA to rescind its execution order, but the resolution stalled in the House Agriculture Committee.

The Vermont Farm Bureau, the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association and the Vermont Sheep Breeders Association have all called for the sheep to be destroyed.

"We have to err on the side of caution, err on the side of consumers' safety," said Farm Bureau president Clark Hinsdale.

The Faillaces, who at one point rejected a $2.5 million compensation settlement from the government, now say they face financial ruin if their sheep are destroyed.

CNN Correspondent Bill Delaney and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Farmers say virus response 'too slow'
March 20, 2001
EU rejects virus vaccination plan
March 19, 2001
Foot-and-mouth case in France prompts EU ban
March 13, 2001

Vermont Farm Bureau
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  • USDA Removes Quarantined Sheep From Vermont Farm
National Veterinary Services
American Veterinary Medical Association
  • State VMAs
Vermont Sheep Breeders Association

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.