A five year study to establish whether BSE has infiltrated the British sheep flock has ended in farce when it emerged that the scientists had been testing samples from cattle all along.
The experiments were supposed to use 2867 sheep brains from animals that died between 1990 and 1992 of suspected scrapie. But further tests confirmed that the material was entirely derived from cattle. It is not clear how the mix up in the 拢217,000 study occurred.
John Krebs, head of the UK Food Standards Agency told BBC Radio on Friday, 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing. The experiment is null and void because the scientists were looking at cow brains, not sheep brains.鈥�
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鈥淚t underlies the importance of not relying on a single line of research, or a single approach, or a single group of scientists,鈥� he said.
The current confusion did not alter the FSA鈥檚 advice that lamb is safe to eat, Krebs said, but he added: 鈥淲e鈥檝e always said there鈥檚 a theoretical risk, and we鈥檝e called for mass testing of the sheep flock.鈥�
鈥淐ompletely flabbergasted鈥�
Chris Bostock, director of the Institute for Animal 午夜福利1000集合, which carried out the study at their neuropathogenesis unit in Edinburgh said, 鈥淚 was completely flabbergasted when told of what they had found. We were certainly of the view that the samples were fundamentally of sheep origin.鈥�
He added that both the Institute for Animal 午夜福利1000集合 and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would be setting up independent audits to investigate the mistake.
The preliminary results of the 鈥渟heep brain鈥� experiments were released in August and suggested that BSE may have infected flocks. The new revelation completely invalidates the research, leaves scientists with little idea whether sheep are carrying BSE.
Quiet release
The error was spotted when the samples were sent for DNA testing at the Laboratory of the Government Scientist. The laboratory鈥檚 conclusions were posted on DEFRA鈥檚 website but not released formally to the media, as would normally be the case.
The government鈥檚 failure to announce such an important finding to parliament has been criticised by David Curry, chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He said it was, 鈥渙ut of order鈥� for ministers not to have told the Commons. It leaves DEFRA open to the charge that it attempted to 鈥榖ury鈥� difficult and embarrassing news.
In September, the Government said that if the experiments showed that BSE could be transferred to sheep the entire national flock would have to be slaughtered. This would be a disaster for an agricultural industry already devastated by the foot and mouth disease epidemic.