The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) is proposing a new regulation that would require that any female sheep brought into the state come from a certified scrapie-free flock or have documentation that it has been genetically tested and has scrapie-resistant genes.  This is an unnecessary new requirement that will impose costly requirements on small producers and restrict the availability of new breeding stock.

The last case of scrapie in Texas was in 2016, eight years ago.  We are one of the 48 states that have been free of classical scrapie cases for more than seven years.  In 2023, USDA’s nationwide testing showed no cases of classical scrapie in goats or sheep in the entire country.

Historically, when scrapie was a more common problem, it was seen more often in blackface sheep.  So in the early 2000’s, TAHC imposed a requirement that imported blackface female sheep had to come from a certified scrapie-free flock or be genetically tested. Texas’ regulation is currently one of the most restrictive in the country.

As the incidence of scrapie has plummeted, there are no longer enough cases to find a significant difference between blackface and whiteface breeds of sheep … not because whiteface sheep have somehow become a higher risk, but because the industry has succeeded in addressing the disease.  Yet rather than rollback the current restrictive regulation that is no longer needed, the TAHC is using that lack of measurable difference as an excuse to expand the restrictions and make it harder for more sheep owners!

TAKE ACTION

Please send comments to TAHC opposing this new requirement.  You can fax your comments to (512) 719-0719 or e-mail to comments@tahc.texas.gov.  Be sure to include in your subject line: “Comments on proposed changes to Chapter 51, Entry Requirements”

The deadline to comment is July 14, 2024.

If you are a sheep producer, your personal story is very important.  Share what it would mean to your operation to have to do genetic testing before bringing in new breeding stock from out of state!

Some general talking points:

• The government should not impose new requirements on farmers and ranchers to address a disease that is almost non-existent in our country and state.
• As the incidence of a disease goes down, the agency should reduce the regulatory burdens on producers, not increase them.

Producers: send your comments to your state legislators also!  You can look up who represents you at Who Represents Me? (texas.gov).  If TAHC ignores producers’ comments (as they often have in the past), we’ll need legislators to weigh in.

Please also send a copy of your comments to info@FarmAndRanchFreedom.org, so we can have a copy to use in future discussions on this issue.

You can read the proposed regulation at Proposed Rules Title 4 (state.tx.us) 

Thank you for taking action now!

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