Latham and Harkin say Disease Lab can handle Vermont sheep safely

Two livestock trucks carrying a total of 233 sheep are headed for Iowa from Vermont. The animals are to be slaughtered and tested for possible exposure to a form of mad cow disease. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says the National Animal Disease Lab in Ames is fully equipped to handle the situation.Security has been stepped up at the lab and authorities say they’re ready for any protests or problems. Harkin says he has every confidence the possibly diseased sheep will be properly handled, tested and destroyed.Iowa Congressman Tom Latham, a republican from Alexander, scolds the media to not make a circus out of the convoy which includes the sheep. Latham says they want to avoid an “O.J. bronco surveillance” when the sheep get to Iowa.Latham says there is -no- risk to the public or to the livestock in Iowa.The sheep are being driven non-stop along an undisclosed 12-hundred-50-mile route. They’re expected to arrive in Ames perhaps as soon as today.