The Scotsman - Business - Why the fallen stock scheme is legislative madness

re: "...The scientists pronounced that scrapie could be masking the fact that the bovine disease BSE was being carried by the UK's national flock of almost 40 million sheep. Scrapie would have to be eliminated as quickly as possible. /This would be accomplished by genotyping pedigree rams. /There are five distinct genotypes and the theory was that by keeping only groups one and two and slaughtering the rest, the country would soon be rid of scrapie. /Cynical farmers and shepherds thought this was a load of nonsense, but they had no choice in the matter if they were to continue selling pedigree livestock. /
Breeders of hill sheep, particularly Blackfaces, were adamant that the process of selecting only top rated rams was diluting the inherent hardiness of their flocks. There is no scientific proof of that, but I am willing to accept the word of those who have spent lifetimes in the hills. /But towards the end of last year the government's own spongiform encephalopathy advisory committee (SEAC) ever so quietly admitted that the chances of BSE being present in the sheep flock were as close to zero as one could possibly wish. On a UK basis the implementation of the NSP has cost taxpayers at least £100 million, with the government picking up most of the bill for the testing process. /Incredible as it may seem, the agricultural press were called to a briefing in Edinburgh's Pentland House, the headquarters of the Scottish Executive's Environment and Rural Affairs Department, in 2000 to be told there was a contingency plan to slaughter every sheep in the UK...[snip]...Over the past ten years many valuable bloodlines have been lost..."...