The farmer at the centre of a farm lock down due to a case of BSE, or 'mad cow disease', has said he thought about giving up farming following the ordeal.
Farmer Thomas Jackson, who farms at Boghead Farm in Aberdeenshire, told BBC Scotland’s countryside magazine series Landward the family-run farm was the centre of “worldwide interest for all the wrong reasons.”
The farm, located in Lumsden, was forced into a state of lock down as a case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed on the property in October.
Investigators are still trying to identify the origin of the disease on the family-run farm, which has not appeared in Scotland for over 10 years.
Scotland’s chief veterinary officer, Sheila Voas believes the case of BSE was not transmitted and occurred spontaneously in the affected animal.
Mr Jackson told Landward: “About a week later we got a phone call from the animal health, saying 'your animal's failed the test for BSE'.
“My initial thought was don't be so bloody stupid, I just thought well they'd made a big mistake here.
“We were the least likely person as far as I was concerned to ever turn up a case.”
News of the disease broke worldwide as Mr Jackson was hundreds of miles away attending his mother’s funeral.
His wife Fiona revealed that the crisis made them consider giving up farming for good.
She said: “It was hard work for me, literally being in tears…and just wanting Thomas to stop farming, wanting him to stop what’s he always done, just because it was so upsetting.”
“I came to see him, and I just looked at him and I thought he's just a broken man, he's worked so hard all his life for these animals, he loves his animals, he talks to his animals, he talks to them more than his wife sometimes, but they're really important to him, that's his livelihood.”
The carcasses of four cattle were tested earlier in November after they were destroyed following the discovery of BSE. Results showed the animals did not have the disease.
There have been 16 cases of BSE in the UK in the past seven years.
