> >
> > Chao for now then
> >
> > Sen'going to miss beef while I'm gone, dang Mad Cow and Foot and Mouth!'try
>
> Mad Cow..... thats terrible. Mum said that if the disease (which is a very remote chance) ever came to Australia we would have to put all the horses, and Rudolph (the biggest fatest most spoiled sheep you've ever seen!) down.
>
> Anyway back to the Mad cow Disease, was Mum being dramatic when she said we'd have to put all our pets down or was she serious?
>
> R"probably being woried for no reason at all"oach

If I remember the news articles (it was a few years ago):

Sheep can catch Mad Cow Desease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, to be technical) because it's very closesly related to Scrapie. Horses, I don't know about.

Even given that, there should be no need to put them down. There were very few slaughters over here, and they were all food animals. If there's no chance of Rudolph ending up as lamb chops, he would be OK (I think). On the other hand, if Rudolf did get Mad Cow, it might be considered a kindness to put him down. The effects on the animal's brain are not pretty.

Of course, quarantine worked fairly well over here and I imagine it would work a great deal better in Oz (being so much more spread out that England), so even if it reached Oz, you would have nothing to worry about unless there were cases within a few dozen miles.

winter"Hope that helps"mute