UK BSE Inquiry - Total cull mooted before CJD link

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

More on the conspiracies which underpinned the UK BSE epidemic!

Cheers etc., Lynette.

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THE GUARDIAN, London, October 21, 1998

Total cull mooted before CJD link

By Meikle

Wednesday October 21, 1998

Senior government figures discussed

killing all 12 million

cattle in the UK because of BSE, as

early as June 1990, it

emerged yesterday.

Gummer, then agriculture

minister, talked informally

with EU officals about the 'ultimate

extreme' measure,

Meldrum, the former chief veterinary

officer, revealed at the

BSE inquiry.

The discussions also covered more

limited culls, the

destruction of BSE-affected farm

herds and 'back of

envelope' estimates of the costs.

They followed the

discovery that in May 1990 a cat had

died of a BSE-type

condition, prompting increased

concern that the disease

could spread to humans. But on May

16, Sir

Acheson, then chief medical officer,

said British beef could

be " safely eaten " .

Mr Meldrum said the government had

considered the

possibility that humans could catch

BSE long before

possible links were confirmed. But

contingency planning

had been " virtually impossible " . Even

when young people

began dying from apparent CJD in

1995, " it would be very

difficult to predict and plan " .

Up to now, evidence to the inquiry

has suggested that the

most drastic killing option was first

seriously discussed in

March 1996, when the probability of a

link between BSE

and new-variant CJD was confirmed.

The destruction of the

herd would then have cost £20 billion

to the dairy industry

alone. Mr Meldrum told the inquiry:

" When the first cat was

diagnosed... we had a meeting of the

council [of ministers]

in Brussels, Gummer,

Packer, [permanent

secretary at the Ministry of

Agriculture] and myself, and

discussed whether the UK should

consider implementing a

herd slaughter policy or a policy

[for] the whole herd. "

He later told journalists that " long

discussions " , which

included European Commission members,

had taken place

away from the formal council talks.

Mr Meldrum said that if

there were evidence that BSE was in

beef muscle it " would

raise a totally different scenario " .

Six years on the government stepped

back from a slaughter

policy, although EU pressure led to

all beef, from animals

over 30 months old, being banned from

the food chain.

A memo released to the inquiry

revealed that Mr Meldrum's

public attitude to the cat death was

severely criticised at the

time by colleagues. Gerald Wells, the

pathologist who

discovered BSE, complained that

comments made to the

BBC by Mr Meldrum which made the

discovery seem

" inconsequential " , were

" inappropriate and provocative " .

The inquiry team yesterday asked MAFF

for an internal

document on the Tory administration's

handling of BSE, and

Mr Meldrum's 1993 taped talks with

Surrey University

researchers about risk.