일본 후쿠오카의 한 농장에서 지난 3월 30일 사망한 양이 스크래피에 감염되어 있는 사실을 확인했다는 뉴스입니다.

스크래피는 전염성 프리온에 의해 양의 뇌가 스펀지처럼 구멍이 숭숭 뚫리는 해면상뇌증으로 광우병과 증상이 비슷합니다만 인간에게 전염이 되지 않습니다.

일본에서 스크래피가 확인된 것은 지난 2005년 이후 처음있는 일이라고 합니다. 일본 정부당국은 양과 염소의 수출선적을 중단할 계획이 없다고 합니다.

Sheep with scrapie found in Japan

출처 : April 14, 2011
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-sheep-scrapie-japan.html

A dead sheep infected with scrapie — a degenerative disease of the nervous system similar to mad cow disease — has been found in western Japan, an official said on Thursday.

The animal died on March 31 on a farm in Fukuoka prefecture where around 50 sheep and goats were kept, said prefectural official Shigetaka Yamashita, adding tests had identified the cause of death as scrapie.

It was the first case of the disease in Japan since 2005 when it was detected in a flock in Kanagawa, south of Tokyo, Yamashita said.

“The sheep will be incinerated soon and we will check the remaining sheep and goats at the farm,” he said, adding that the prefecture had no plan to impose any ban on shipments of sheep or goats.

Sheep farming is not common in Japan and is mainly concentrated on the far northern island of Hokkaido.

Scrapie is related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, a highly infectious condition that has devastated whole herds of cows in Japan and other parts of the world, and which has been linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.