Verdict awaited in BSE brains mix-up

We still do not know whether BSE exists in the UK flock

By BBC Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh

An independent investigation into the mixing up of cow and sheep brains in a government BSE study will conclude that the mistake was made by researchers in Edinburgh.

Just over six weeks ago, researchers working for the Institute for Animal Health said they had detected traces of BSE in what they thought were scrapie-infected sheep brains.

But last-minute DNA tests showed that the scientists had spent the past three years analysing cow brains instead.

Three separate investigations are to conclude that there is no clear answer to how the mix up occurred.

Double criticism

But it is understood one of them, by the audit company Risk Solutions, will say that the most likely explanation is that somehow the sheep brain samples were confused with cow brains collected for a separate experiment in 1997.

If that is the case then the blame falls on researchers at the Institute of Animal Health in Edinburgh, where the samples were stored at the time.

In effect the researchers took the wrong samples out of the fridge and continued to experiment on them for three years.

I also understand that a second report will say standards of storing and labelling samples at the Institute were well short of international standards.

The question remains how such a simple mistake occurred in the first place and why it was not picked up earlier by the Institute's scientists.

Theoretical risk

The episode raises questions about the way the Rural Affairs department runs and monitors the research it sponsors.

The department has been aware of the theoretical risk of BSE in the sheep flock since 1990 and has spent thousands of pounds on research.

But their scientists are little further forward and the population continues to be exposed to a potential risk to its health.

Six weeks ago the results of a study which would establish whether BSE may be present in the sheep flock were expected.

The researchers spent three years studying what they thought were the liquidised brains of 3,000 scrapie-infected brains collected in the early 1990s.

Considerable embarrassment

They found traces of BSE in these samples, a finding which prompted some ministers to consider wiping out the entire sheep flock on the grounds of public safety.

The investigation will bring considerable embarrassment for the scientists concerned.

Not only did they make the blunder in the first place, but they failed to pick up on the mistake thereafter.

But the fall-out from all of this will be how government science is run.

Five years on from seeing that there was a theoretical risk to human health from sheep meat, it is still unclear whether BSE exists in the UK flock.