Will scrapie genotype selection lead to loss of our pure ancient breeds of sheep?
A consultation document for a National Scrapie Plan for Great Britain has been issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Replies are required by October 31st 2000. Below are some arguments against implementation of scrapie genotyping for sheep breeds belonging to the Northern Short-tail group. Three main concerns are: 1. These are unique ancient breeds where selection for a particular expression of any character would risk the loss of a unique genetic resource. 2. These are breeds where there appears to be a complete lack of the ‘resistant Codon 136 154 171 genotype’ AA RR RR, or it may occur infrequently in the population. 3. There is to date incomplete information about the role of the prion protein. There is, however, sufficient indication that it may have an important role in, for example, resistance to oxidative stress and possibly copper homeostasis. It may be significant when considering the Northern short-tail group of sheep that the gene coding for the prion p
