| Orchid Cellmark is the major supplier of scrapie genotyping
to the UK government’s National Scrapie Plan (NSP) and is the exclusive
supplier of services to the Northern Ireland Scrapie Plan. We also provide
a
private scrapie genotyping service for farmers in the UK and overseas.
Together with BSE and CJD, Scrapie is a member of the TSE (transmissible
spongiform encelopathy) group of diseases. Scrapie is a degenerative disease
of the sheep’s nervous system. Variation in their genetic constitution
means that certain sheep are more resistant than others to developing
scrapie. The NSP is a long term government funded genotyping and breeding
initiative to increase the resistance of the national flock and therefore
reduce and eventually eliminate scrapie. More information about the National
Scrapie Plan can be found on the Defra
website.
A sheep’s natural resistance to scrapie can be determined by testing
a blood or tissue sample containing the animal’s DNA. Variation at
three positions (called codons) within the prion protein (PrP) gene determines
the animal’s level of resistance. PrP genotyping allows us to classify
each sheep into five different risk categories for scrapie susceptibility.
Using this data allows farmers and livestock breeders to make informed
breeding decisions quickly and cheaply, helping them to develop flocks
that are scrapie resistant and therefore more economically competitive.
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