Scrapie is a prion disease of sheep and goats that causes progressive neurological deterioration and is of significant animal welfare concern, with national surveillance programmes supporting control.
Scrapie causes progressive, untreatable neurological suffering in affected sheep. The animal welfare imperative is early identification and humane euthanasia of clinically affected animals, combined with prevention through genetic resistance breeding. The ARR resistance allele provides near-complete protection against classical scrapie and its incorporation into breeding programmes has substantially reduced disease incidence in participating flocks. However, scrapie surveillance must continue because atypical scrapie and other TSE variants may not be affected by classical resistance genotypes. The welfare case for maintaining robust surveillance and reporting systems is clear - early detection prevents prolonged suffering and limits disease spread.