BERLIN (AP)
_ The head of Germany"s disease control agency has called
for tests of the nation"s sheep for possible variants of
mad cow disease. Reinhard Kurth, head of the Robert Koch Institute,
said cattle and sheep had been exposed to the same animal feed
that may have contained meat and bone meal, the Welt am Sonntag
newspaper reported Sunday.
Mad cow disease
is believed to spread through such feed. "There is absolutely
no basis to assume that sheep are immune to this disease,"
Kurth was quoted as saying. He said, however, that since 1963
Germany has only seen nine reported cases of sheep scrapie, an
illness that is similar to mad cow disease. Experts believe the
cattle disease, which appeared in the 1970s, may be a mutation
of the sheep disease.
Mad cow disease
has been linked to a human illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Researchers believe it is contracted by eating infected beef.
Germany recorded its first case of mad cow disease last month,
and the number of infected cattle is growing. Other European countries
have started pulling German beef products off shelves and banning
imports.
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