I’m heartbroken
Farmer at centre of BSE scare devastated by discovery of disease
A FARMER yesterday told of his ‘heartbreak’ after one of his cattle developed mad cow disease.
Tests on the animal found at Boghead Farm near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, showed it had been killed by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) infection.
The case, the first in Scotland in more than a decade, was confirmed by officials on Thursday, who also said there was no threat to human health.
Three more cows and a calf from the herd will be culled and tested for the disease.
Farmer Thomas Jackson yesterday broke his silence by releasing a statement though the National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland.
He said: ‘This has been a very difficult time for myself and my wife and we have found the situation personally devastating.
‘We have built up our closed herd over many years and have always taken great pride in doing all the correct things. To find through the surveillance system in place that one of our cows has BSE has been heartbreaking.
‘Since this happened we have been fully co-operating with all the parties involved and will continue to do so as we, like everyone, want to move forward and clear up this matter.’
He added: ‘The cohorts and offspring of the cow have now been identified and as a purely precautionary measure they will be slaughtered and tested in due course. Again we are fully co-operating with all the parties with regards to this.’
Boghead Farm, which sits at the end of a dirt track, was quiet yesterday. The farmyard was empty and there were no signs of any activity from the authorities.
The farmhouse sits on the outskirts of the village of Lumsden, between the towns of Alford and Huntly.
A woman who claimed to be a housekeeper answered the home phone but said Mr Jackson and his wife were ‘away’ and would be ‘until next week’. Cattle could be seen
‘Very difficult time for my wife and I’
grazing in a nearby field, although it is not known if they are part of Mr Jackson’s herd.
Villagers in Lumsden said they were unaware the farm had been put on lockdown yesterday.
rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing imposed a livestock movement ban as soon as the tests showed positive for BSE.
The feed given to the infected animals has been impounded for tests, although the BSE infection could have mutated naturally within the animals.
Officials say there is no wider risk to the public as the meat did not enter the human food chain.
Scotland’s Chief Veterinary Officer Sheila Voas confirmed that up to four other cows on the farm will be slaughtered and tested for the disease.
Speaking on BBC radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, she said: ‘The animal itself is dead, she died before she was tested, and there are three other animals, or possibly four, that will need to be slaughtered purely from a precautionary basis.’
She said samples would be taken from these animals and tested for BSE. She believes the disease occurred spontaneously in the affected animal, but she warned it could be several months before investigators could say for certain.
‘All the information we have is this is under control, there’s no reason for people to panic,’ she added.
‘It’s not the start of an outbreak, it’s a single isolated case that won’t affect the food chain.’
The last British outbreak of BSE was in Wales in 2015, when the disease was discovered in a dead cow.
The latest case ends the Scottish farming industry’s ‘disease-free’ status achieved 18 months ago.
In 1996, scientists linked BSE to a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) a fatal brain disease in humans. Since the death of Stephen Churchill in 1995 the UK death toll from vCJD has risen to 178.
The Scottish Government yesterday confirmed that the farm was on lockdown and that investigations were ‘ongoing’.
mad cow disease returns From yesterday’s Mail