There
are some suspicions as yet totally
unproven the the
disease Scrapie which has existsed in sheep for
centuries is related in some way to BSE.
However
unlikely this is, the Government has instituted a
survey to identify those sheep and breeds with the
highest genetic resistance to Scrapie.
In
July 2003 the RBST and DEFRA published details of the
work carried out so far. As a breed Portlands had one
of the highest levels of disease resitant sheep of
all the rare breeds. 83.8% had the highest level and
14.1% had the next level down. Better than almost any
other breed.
This
does reinforce the importance of only buying Portland
sheep with proven test results.
All
the animals trested in our flock have the high level
of resistance and we would not consider buying any
animal with a lower rating.
In a
very few years any ram with a low grade result will
have to be slaughtered so the above applies
particularly to them.
