Scrapie can infect both sheep and goats; therefore, both species are covered in the National Scrapie Eradication Program (NSEP). While scrapie in goats is relatively rare – only 16 known cases in the United States since 1990 – there can be considerable risk to producers who raise both higher-prevalence sheep breeds, such as meat-type, black-faced breeds and goats.

If scrapie is found in a commingled flock/herd, all goats are removed as part of the flock clean up-plan.

“This is because we have no scientific evidence, as we do in sheep, that some goats are genetically resistant to the disease,” explains Diane L. Sutton, DVM,  NSEP coordinator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal Health and Inspection Service-Veterinary Services (APHIS-VS). 

“Because we know that sheep with genotypes AARR are scrapie resistant and AAQR are rarely susceptible, those animals can remain in a scrapie-infected or scrapie-exposed flock once they have been genotyped. AVQR sheep may also be retained if the positive animals in the flock are all AAQQ. At this point, we don’t have the genetic knowledge to determine which goats are susceptible to scrapie and which are not, so we must assume they all are,” states Sutton.    

So is there anything a producer, who has both sheep and goats, can do to protect goats?

“Yes, where practical, the goats and sheep can be kept separately. We know that scrapie is not an airborne disease, but rather spread through exposure to birthing fluids and/or the placenta at lambing or kidding. So if the species are kept completely separate, the goat operation could continue uninterrupted,” says Sutton.

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Source: Sheep Industry News
January 10, 2006

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