美国政府在佛蒙特州发现300头绵羊感染上了疯牛病
13 美国政府在佛蒙特州发现300头绵羊感染上了疯牛病
DATE=4-10-01
TITLE=AGRICULTURE REPORT - Sheep Seized for Possible Mad Cow Disease BYLINE=George Grow
（Start at 59"）This is Bill White with the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.
United States government agents seized more than three- hundred sheep from two farms in the state of (1) Vermont last month. It was the first time American federal officials seized farm animals suspected of having a form of Mad Cow Disease.
The sheep were taken to a government laboratory in Iowa where they were destroyed. Tissue from the animals will be tested for the disease. The action comes one year after the Agriculture Department said tests showed several of the sheep might have the disease.
Mad Cow Disease is also called （2）Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. B-S-E causes holes in the brain. The disease was first found in cows in Britain almost twenty years ago.
In humans, the rare but deadly disorder 1 is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The disease has killed about one- hundred people in Europe, most of them in Britain. They reportedly ate meat from infected animals.
There has never been a confirmed case of B-S-E in the United States. Three farms in Vermont imported sheep from Belgium and The （3）Netherlands in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. The Agriculture Department said it learned two years later that the sheep might have been given feed (4) infected with B-S-E. Agriculture Department officials asked state officials to closely watch the condition of the animals.
Last year, the Agriculture Department announced plans to seize and destroy the sheep from the three farms. One of the farmers agreed to sell his twenty-one sheep to the Agriculture Department to be destroyed.
However, the other two farmers rejected the plan. They took legal action to block the plan. Lawyers for the farmers questioned the effectiveness of the test the government used to support its order. A federal appeals court ruled that the Agriculture Department was acting 2 within its right. The government has agreed to pay the farmers for the fair market value of the sheep.
A lawyer for one of the farmers called the (5) seizure 3 sad and unnecessary. However, Agriculture Department officials said they had no choice but to act. They said the sheep were a threat to the health of farm animals nationwide.
Activists 4 from People for the Ethical 5 Treatment of Animals protested the destruction of the sheep. The group also urged people to stop eating meat.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow.
注释：
(1) Vermont[ v[:5mRnt]n.佛蒙特州(美国州名)
(2) bovine[ 5b[uvain ]adj.迟钝的, 牛的, 耐心的
(3) Netherlands[5neT[l[ndz]n.荷兰, 地区名
(4) infected[in`fektid]adj.(伤口)被感染的
(5) seizure[ 5si:V[ ]n.抓,没收,夺取
- When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
- It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
- Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
- During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。
- The seizure of contraband is made by customs.那些走私品是被海关没收的。
- The courts ordered the seizure of all her property.法院下令查封她所有的财产。