Information given by newspapers as gossip

Because it is gossip it must not be considered to be the truth until it is checked in some way. This must not be taken as an insult to anyone as none is intended. There are no evil people involved in the subject whatever and everyone has taken large amounts of time and effort in carrying out what they feel is the best

However, what seems the best for the farmer may not seem the best for the consumer and what is best for the politician to keep the populus calm may not be the whole of the information that the populus feels should have been given.

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Difficulty in talking to MAFF officials

Sometimes the news people will go to ask questions of Meldrum and be given a short time with difficulties in getting him into a tight spot. Not surprising really.(Granada)

Cattle eaten that are infected with BSE.

It has been calculted by a number of people that we will have eaten large numbers of cattle that are infected by the end of the epidemic. Dealler says 1.8 million, and this is an upgrading of his original figure in 1993 of about 600,000. The reason for the difference is the continueation of the epidemic past the feed ban. The fact that He and John Kent, the professor of statistics at Leeds University had to calculate the number of cases that were not actually being reported to MAFF and originally this was difficult. Eventually they managed to do this in two ways by using two separate sets of MAFF figures. As such it is unlikely that their data is incorrect. In 1992 only about 60% of the cattle with symptoms got reported and in 1993 only 40%. The data for 1994 is inadequate yet to be sure. The question is; where did the infected animals go?

A third and fourth teenager with CJD?

Currently there is Vicky Rimmer (now 18), who is still dying in North Wales, and another teenager (aged 12?) similarly comatose in Herefordshire. What is wrong with them is unsure but no diagnosis has been made on either. There have been only 4 teenagers with CJD in the world so far and 2 of them were this year in the UK.(not covered yet)

Thymus and gut bans for human food.

In 1994 MAFF banned the presence of the thymus and gut from calves in human food in the UK. The question was; what had happened to the thymus and gut from the calves up until that point? The number of infected calves slaughtered was possibly very high and most of them exported. Were the French warned of the risk? (Today)

Excess CJD in the Devizes area.

There are apparently 3 cases. One has died already (Churchill) and two more are on the way. The reason for this is unclear. There were also 2 cases last year in Burnley.(?BBC)

An exporter of cattle was caught.

He had been removing the ear tags and changing them so that cattle could be taken out of the country (The Times, 8th Nov 1995)

Someone watching the press.

A PhD student has made it her doctorate to watch the media and its activity concerning BSE Jackie Reilly, Glasgow University.

Harash Narang and his new test

. If this could identify the people that are already infected with BSE then he could have quite a finding. Currently he has no laboratory that is adequate to work in and drives around the country picking up samples and testing them in labs where he can. (Newcastle Local Papers)

Blood transfusion.

It now seems that there may be a risk to humans from blood transfusion and CJD. If a lot of people are infected with BSE then their blood may be infective also. A current problem with no answer. John Barbara at the BT centre at Colindale in N. London has the figures of the risk but has not published them yet. The possibility may arise that we must not export blood products

Independent changes its tune.

For a long time the Independent has been dampening down any worry about BSE but its latest article, although initially calming spent the rest of the article repeating Dealler's views that we simply do not know enough about BSE to take the risk that has been taken. In other words it may be too late. (Independent, 25 Oct)

Tebbit says its all right.

The Sun (June 16 1995) had a large article ('Keep on Chomping Cordelia') about how David Clark (Labour MP) had been foaming at the mouth about BSE ('remember the mad cow scare'). What Tebbit seems to say in the article also seems to show that he does not understand much about TSEs.

Fresh fears over Mad Cow Disease (Ind. 29.10, Liz Hunt).

Particularly during the week around the 25th of October there was a re-emergence of fear about the number of cases of BSE and CJD

Infected cattle being eaten. Granada 13th Nov World in Action.

This shows that the number of cases eaten was very high and that the MAFF were neither aware of the data, looked for it, nor had adequate plans to deal with it. For the follow up, see Dealler's article in publications.

BSE on Today (BBC now on 13th Nov).

Probably about the large number of cases of BSE not disappearing. The BBC seem to have been sat on concerning BSE (they were going to produce a Horizon program in 1994 but pulled out).

BBC Wales

is currently producing a program for a few months time concerning the potential risks of BSE.

Will Patterson the Public Health expert on BSE.

He was given a full pat on theback by the people of York, who's paper (York Ev Press, 30,10) made this clear. He was the first PH person to stand up and state that BSE was a potential danger to the population and should be a major PH issue.

Proof of the commission cover up.

Europ MP Ben Fayot seems to have found the document that was published in Journal du Dimanche last week. He is asking the commission about this."Does the Commsion today share the view that a major catastrophe with serious consequences for the health of the EU citizens as well as for the EU economy could have been avoided if the commission had reaacetd in an appropriate way when this disease appeared? It was in a confidential summary of the veerinary committee meeting of the 8 and 10 October 1990 and makes it plain that it would be better for the UK not to publish its data and for groups to play down the risk from BSE. This will undoubtedly be a major finding.

More information about the Meat and LIvestock Commssion being Censured by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Apparently the full page articles that they put into all the newspapers in December 1995 were unacceptable. In the adverts they said that there were 8 truths (showing that beef was not a risk)...the ADA said that 5 of them were unacceptable as 'truth'.

SEAC has put out specific recommendations on the handling of waste.

They suggested that tallow from cattle over 30 months should be incincerated. The SEAC conlcluded that particles of brain snd spibnal cord must not leave the abattoir other than as SBM. Therefore assuming that the particulate matter is retained and disposed as SBM, the SEAC was content for abattoirs to continue to discharge their liquid waste to sewers and for sewage sludge to be disposed of by spreading on land as any small particles that might pass through the sewage trap in the abattoir would be diluted to such an extent as to pose negligable risk. Maybe they had not seen the water that came from these places. The document again says '...there is currently no evidence that....' and seems to use this as evidence that there is therefore no risk. This was the similar argument (i.e. that lack of evidence of danger means safety) as used earlier in the epidemic.

Where there's smoke?

SEAC also stated that the Committee did not feel that there were any reasons related to BSE which militated against the use of tallow or MBM as a fuel sourse for either the poser generation or cement industries or that required any special precautions to be taken in relationto the protection of the environment either from smoke discharges or from the resulting ash.

The MBM at RAF Quedgeley (2000 tons) is going to be moved.

They said so on 12 June but did not say to where or when. Various groups, including the wing commander visited the site and were unhappy with what was going on.

Ratcliffe Power station is to be used to incinerate MBM.

But, there is little information about how the material is getting to it or being stored. It was quite clear that the media were the cause of something being done about Quedgeley but it can be seen that the problem may appear elsewhere.

The Department of the Environment seems to have produced the Waste Management Licensing (Amendment) Regulations 1996.

This provides an exemption from wate management licensing for the temporary storage of specified wastes. (came into force 14 May).

Budget for the Meat Hygeine Service.

This has gone up within the last few weeks from 34 million to 68 million. they are under a lot of pressure to get things right

Stored meat.

Dont forget that the EC intervened to keep up the price of beef and hence had to put a lot into storage. MAFF now says that anything over 30 months in storage is having to be discarded.

The amounts of dyestuff to be used has gone up.

Blue V is not all that cheap and apparently the abattoir people are not happy with this as it will cut into their profits. I am not at all sure of this as they may well be able to get the money back from other EC or government sources.

Tigers.

It now appears that two tigers have died of FSE. One was age 12 and the other aged 14. Little extra data avalable.

Gelatine may not be accepted by Europeans.

When they looked at the UK methods they quickly realised that they simply were not adequate and the methods that hey had demanded to the UK gelatine industry were not going to be adequate either.

SEAC recommendations on the handling of waste material from cattle.

Again this has to be done on the best guess method. The problem with prion destruction is that simply not enough is known about it. The methods that they can see as being effective are dilution (e.g. into the air or the water) or incineration. The problem with BSE is that there will be simply so much of it. Hopefully the rendering followed by these methods may actually be valid but the directions to the Environmental Agency does not seem to demand that incinerators are checked as to the temperatures they are reaching etc when the SEAC do demand specific temperatures. Is the Dept of the Environment simply cutting corners or do they not understand the specific directions from SEAC?

Latest News 22.9.96

The UK exported much corned beef to the island of Mauritius where it was eaten as a subsidised product.

This came out in August as information through the MPs. What was then found was that much of the beef product was then reimported back to Europe. The aim was to get the export subsidy from the EC and then to get the money as well. (Guardian June 30)

The meeting in Erice Sicily (19-22 Aug) was only open to invited people and organised by NATO.

Apparently NATO do this occaisionally but the limiting of the invited people has angered a lot of the groups involved. Presumably there simply wasn't room for the lot.

The stopping of the beef cull has made a lot of people happy.

But it seems now that the UK Government groups wanted to fight it out with the EU but it was clear that you dont fight a war that you are not going to win approach was taken up by the UK.

The backlog of cattle waiting to be slaughtered is building up and this has come through to the press.

Farmers are wondering what to do when winter comes as they will not have enough feed stocks to keep the cattle. It is worried that slaughtere will take place on the farm.

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