Federal veterinarians have confirmed classical scrapie in a sheep slaughtered at an Oregon plant, the first detection of the fatal prion disease in the United States in more than five years. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced the confirmation on July 31, after the National Veterinary Services Laboratories completed diagnostic and genotyping tests.
For grocery shoppers, the immediate answer is reassuring and worth stating plainly at the top. Scrapie is an animal health disease. The Oregon Department of Agriculture said there is no known risk to people, and no human illness has ever been documented from scrapie despite nearly three centuries of recorded observation in sheep flocks.
