A degenerative brain disease in sheep, the equivalent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. The bulk of evidence is that the diseases are not transmissible between species, although this is increasingly challenged. Scrapie is believed to have triggered mad cow disease as cows were given feed containing parts of sheep carcasses.
In 1996, researchers acknowledged that scrapie could be a threat to humans. Certain organ meats of sheep, goats and deer were banned from human and animal food in the UK.