Judge Allows Seizure of Suspect Sheep
The U.S. Department of Agriculture can seize two flocks of imported sheep suspected of carrying a form of “mad cow” disease, a federal judge ruled in Montpelier. U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha said the owners of the sheep imported from Belgium must comply with an order issued last summer to give up their sheep.
The USDA moved to seize the 355 sheep in July after a lab test found four animals infected with a form of “transmissible spongiform encephalopathy,” a family of illnesses that includes mad cow disease.
The owners--Linda and Larry Faillace of Warren, and Houghton Freeman of Stowe--have fought the order, saying that the science that revealed the infection was flawed.
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