Bluetongue can be a deadly disease of sheep. The standard approach to an outbreak is vaccination, vaccination, & more vaccination. A new study shows that these vaccines cause an autoimmune neurological disorder called ASIA—the same that vaccines can induce in humans. This study of Spanish sheep provides a frightening look into its frequency and severity. What does it mean in humans?
by Heidi Stevenson
The powers-that-be refuse to do studies comparing the health of vaccinated against unvaccinated children. However, Spanish animal pathology researcher, Lluís Luján, was concerned with serious health problems in sheep following mass vaccination to combat bluetongue, a viral disease spread by insects. So, a study was done to compare vaccinated versus unvaccinated sheep. The results should concern everyone.
Though the percentages of affected sheep varied widely, as many as 100% of some flocks were devastated by the vaccine-induced disease called autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA).
ASIA in Sheep
Researchers of the study, published in the journal Immunology Research, describe a syndrome that has an acute phase in only about one-half of one percent of sheep, from which most recover. However, a chronic phase develops later, and that is devasting, both in numbers and severity of illness. The economic impact is enormous. They describe it like this:
The chronic phase of the ovine ASIA syndrome is a more frequent event in our local conditions of ovine production and causes a neurological and cachectic process that has no parallel in ovine pathology, and it is a serious but unexplained concern for farmers and veterinarians. The chronic phase does not necessarily follow an acute episode, and it is triggered by the combination of multiple alum adjuvant containing inoculations over the years and external stimuli.
Severity is generally related to stress. Conditions like cold weather, poor nutrition, and high levels of milk production result in significantly worse disease.
Frequency of chronic ASIA is about 50-70% of flocks, and up to 100% of the sheep within a flock. The syndrome runs through phases. It starts with “an excitatory period where affected animals show constant movement, abnormal behavior, restlessness and compulsive wool biting, resulting in animals with a very poor wool coat, a diffuse redness of the skin and thinning of the affected sheep.” During this time, the sheep exhibit a normal appetite or even an excessive one. However, this phase ends dramatically with sudden weakness, head tilting to one side, muscle tremors, and weight loss that moves toward cachexia.
In the terminal phase, the animals suffer from lack of response to stimuli, ataxia, and tetraplegia. They then fall into a stupor or coma, and die. They’re also known to have spontaneous abortions. They suffer from lesions of fat deposits, serous fat atrophy, ascites, hydrothorax, hydropericardium, and atrophy of skeletal muscles. Peripheral nerves become thickened in most animals. This can include primary nerves, like the sciatic, also.
[Read more: http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2013-05-01/up-to-100-vaccinated-sheep-contract-chronic-neurological-syndrome-study/]
