BARRE - Two flocks of Vermont sheep must be killed to block the spread of an always-fatal brain disorder that could infect humans, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge J. Garvan Murtha refused to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from seizing and slaughtering the animals suspected of harboring a form of mad cow disease.

The flock owners - Linda and Larry Faillace of Warren and Houghton Freeman of Stowe - had fought the government's order to destroy their 355 animals, arguing that the test the government used was flawed and that their sheep are healthy and were not exposed to mad cow disease before being imported from Europe in 1996.

But Murtha cited tests conducted for the U.S. Department of Agriculture that showed four of the animals culled from one of the farms are infected with a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a family of illnesses that includes mad cow disease and a far more common sheep disease called scrapie.

Murtha said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman was trying to protect the public when he issued a "declaration of extraordinary emergency" on July 14 requiring that the imported Belgian dairy sheep be killed.

"If the secretary is correct that the continued presence in this country of the Belgian sheep constitutes an unacceptable risk, their destruction will greatly reduce the possibility that humans and domestic animals will be exposed to a contagion not presently endemic in the United States," Murtha wrote. "Such potential harm, together with the government's obligation to compensate the plaintiffs for their loss, counsel against the granting of injunctive relief."

The judge gave the flock owners until Aug. 7 to comply with the government's July 14 seizure order. A USDA spokesman said the government would not take the animals immediately but would meet with the owners first to set a value for the sheep.

The USDA will remove and destroy the animals in a humane manner, he said.

"Our goal would be to work something out before the 7th," spokesman Patrick Collins said. "We're clearly interested - and the court is interested - in us working with these families in a positive way in a situation that's obviously uncomfortable for all parties involved."

Linda Faillace said the family was considering an appeal.

"If it means keeping the sheep alive, we'll go for it. It's like they're taking your kids away," she said through tears Tuesday.

Thomas Amidon, a lawyer representing Freeman, also said an appeal is possible.

"We haven't made any decisions yet," he said. "Obviously we knew that we had a huge burden to overcome going in. . But we really had to have someone look at it. To that extent, we are appreciative to the fact that a third party - the judiciary - has taken a look at it."

Last month, Glickman ordered the sheep destroyed after tests on brain tissue from four of Freeman's animals revealed signs of a transmissible brain disease that could be bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the scientific name of mad cow disease.

The USDA says the Vermont animals or their ancestors were exposed to mad cow disease by consuming feed in Europe made from meat and bone meal contaminated with the infectious agent, an abnormal protein dubbed a prion.

Mad cow disease, the bovine version of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, first appeared in mid-1980s when British cattle began falling ill with a mysterious brain ailment. The epidemic was linked to feed supplements derived from infected animal products. More than 176,000 cows have died from the disease and more than 4 million were destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading further.

Since it first appeared in its human form in 1996, a total of 76 people in Britain, two in France and one in Ireland have died or are dying of the fatal disorder. So far this year, the disease has killed 14 Britons, as many as died from it all last year. Because the incubation period for the disease can last for more than 10 years, the number of victims is expected to rise.

Lawyers for the Vermont flock owners argued that the test conducted for the USDA did not show whether their sheep had mad cow disease or scrapie, a related but far more common sheep illness. Unlike mad cow disease, scrapie is not considered dangerous to people.

Dr. Richard Rubenstein, the scientist who conducted the diagnostic test on the Vermont sheep for the USDA, told the court last week that he could not tell if the animals had mad cow disease or scrapie. Other scientists, testifying for the flock owners, challenged the testing procedure Rubenstein used.

But Murtha said the flock owners' experts "merely questioned, but they did not contradict, Dr. Rubenstein's methods and conclusions."

The experts for the flock owners also acknowledged that Rubenstein is "pre-eminent in the field" of TSE research, he wrote. The flock owners failed to meet their legal burden of showing that the government's action was "arbitrary and capricious," Murtha said.

"At this time, a 100 percent definitive test which identifies specific types of TSE is unavailable. It appears (Glickman) has relied upon the most authoritative evidence presently available," he wrote.

The judge also noted that most of the sheep brains - including the area where the TSE can be more easily detected - was used up by the USDA's tests.

"At most, plaintiff's experts indicated they would have conducted additional tests, which would have to be performed on a less sensitive part of the brain of the same sheep," he wrote.

After the USDA's seizure order, the owners of 21 sheep in a flock in Lyndonville voluntarily sold their sheep to the government. The Faillaces and Freeman, however, fought the USDA order even as government veterinarians traveled to their farms to appraise the condemned animals.

The Faillaces said the next step likely would be the government offering a price for their high milk producing sheep, which they consider irreplaceable. The Faillaces have valued their business at $11.3 million. But Linda Faillace said she was told the USDA has only $2.1 million budgeted for the entire acquisition and disposal of both flocks.

Larry Faillace said he was disappointed that Murtha ruled that the family would not suffer "irreparable harm" if the sheep were destroyed.

"He said we were not able to prove we would suffer irreparable harm by losing the sheep. We have the highest quality dairy sheep outside of Europe," he said. "If that's not irreparable harm by taking them, I don't know what is."

Since many of the dairy sheep are lactating, Amidon asked Murtha in court last week to ensure that, if seized, the sheep don't suffer before they are killed.

"A farmer feels very strongly about his animals. A farmer feels some animals stay and some have to go. That's farming. But they all love their animals," Amidon said Tuesday. "Because these animals are lactating, if they were to be transported for a number of hours they would be in great pain."

Linda Detwiler, the USDA veterinarian in charge of keeping mad cow disease out of the United States, said the transporting of the sheep could be timed to coincide with milking and the people who move them could carry a portable milking machine.

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