Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Because there is a theoretical possibility that the British national sheep flock is infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), we examined the extent of a putative epidemic. An age cohort analysis based on numbers of infected cattle, dose responses of cattle and sheep to BSE, levels of exposure to infected feed, and number of BSE-susceptible sheep in the United Kingdom showed that at the putative epidemic peak in 1990, the number of cases of BSE-infected sheep would have ranged from fewer than 10 to about 1500. The model predicts that fewer than 20 clinical cases of BSE in sheep would be expected in 2001 if maternal transmission occurred at a rate of 10%. Although there are large uncertainties in the parameter estimates, all indications are that current prevalence is low; however, a simple model of flock-to-flock BSE transmission shows that horizontal transmission, if it has occurred, could eventually cause a large epidemic.

Original publication

DOI

10.1126/science.1067475

Type

Journal article

Journal

Science

Publication Date

11/01/2002

Volume

295

Pages

332 - 335

Keywords

Age Factors, Animal Feed, Animal Husbandry, Animals, Cattle, Cohort Studies, Disease Outbreaks, Disease Transmission, Infectious, Eating, Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Glutamine, Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical, Logistic Models, Models, Biological, Models, Statistical, Prevalence, Prions, Probability, Scrapie, Sheep, Sheep Diseases, Time Factors, United Kingdom