Sheep as Guinea Pigs on Gruinard : Contaminated Island to Get All-Clear?

Forty fattened sheep have returned to the Scottish mainland after making history by feeding on the underbrush on Gruinard Island.

The island was a secret germ-warfare test site during World War II, and the sheep were the first to set foot there in 44 years. They were ferried to Gruinard for the summer to test a yearlong, $825,000 government program to decontaminate the scenic island of the lethal anthrax bacteria.

The Ministry of Defense took over the island in 1941 and spent two years experimenting on bombs containing anthrax, believing that Nazi Germany was doing something similar. The experiments succeeded, but Gruinard Island, which had been only used to graze sheep, was no longer safe for humans or flocks.

Anthrax is an infectious disease that afflicts wild and domesticated animals, cattle and sheep and can be transmitted to humans. It is characterized by black pustules and is believed to be the “plague of boils” that Moses called down upon the Egyptians.

Proceeding Cautiously

Prof. William Stewart, a Dundee University microbiologist who chairs the independent scientific committee that advised the Defense Ministry on the decontamination program, said that if the sheep continue to thrive, Gruinard Island could be returned to its civilian owners by the end of this year.

But the six-member committee is proceeding cautiously, keeping the sheep in isolation to make sure that they had no contact with anthrax.

Birds and rabbits have survived on the island, apparently impervious to anthrax. But the island had to be decontaminated to make it safe for humans and sheep.

“We wanted to show that sheep could be farmed on Gruinard Island under identical conditions to any other place in western Scotland,” Stewart said. “Certainly by the end of November, if the sheep continue in their present state, we will not be recommending any more demonstrations that sheep can live there.

“If we can have shown that sheep can live there, dogs can live there and man can live there, what more can we do?”

40 Test Sheep

Gruinard, a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, is 400 yards offshore from western Scotland.

It belonged to a Scottish family trust that was paid 500 pounds, then worth about $2,500, for the property in 1941. The trust will be able to buy the island back for the same 500 pounds, now worth $825, and repopulate it with sheep when the committee gives its final clearance, Steward said.

Farmer Angus Renwick, who owns the 40 test sheep and whose son went to Gruinard Island every day to tend them, said that when the sheep, all ewes, come out of the precautionary isolation, they will join the 2,000 other ewes in his flock.

Not Bothered by Past

“We hope to have lambs with them next spring,” he said.

Like most residents of this spectacularly beautiful and sparsely populated area, Renwick said he wasn’t bothered by Gruinard Island’s deadly past.

“I believe that there are no more anthrax spores on Gruinard than on any other part of the mainland,” he said. “I would take it on if I got the opportunity to farm it with sheep again next summer.

“The sheep did well on the island. They seemed to thrive on it.”

Explosion Experiment

The last sheep on Gruinard, before Renwick’s flock, died when bombs containing liquid anthrax bacteria were exploded on the island, spreading the organisms.

The experiments showed that the bacteria would remain lethal even after the heat of an explosion. While anthrax bombs were never produced in Britain, British documents declassified in 1981 reveal that the test results were passed to the United States, which started manufacturing the bombs.