Is exclusive BSE/MBM theory now inadequate?
Is exclusive BSE/MBM theory now inadequate?
Since the onset of the BSE disaster, that has devastated the British and Irish beef industries since 1986, MAFF (the UK's Ministry of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food) and the NI Department of Agriculture (DANI) have attempted to blame the cause of BSE (Bovine Spongfform Encephalopathy)solely on infected meat and bone meal (MBM). Throughout the entire Conservative administration, all other theories about the cause of BSE were dismissed as the work of head-bangers, cranks, and quacks.
However, since the establishment of the BSE Inquiry, headed by Sir Nicholas Phillips, there has been a remarkable change of attitude. While Tony Blair's New Labour Government has been criticised for its stances on some policy issues,their open-minded approach to uncovering the true cause of BSE, and the mismanagement of this (mainly British) problem, has been remarkably refreshing.
For several years, scientific evidence has been increasing which indicates that to solely blame the onset of BSE on infected MBM, is no longer valid. Information obtained from pesticide licensing authorities and ministries of agriculture worldwide, shows that many countries which fed MBM to their cattle have never had a single case of BSE; for example, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, South America, and the USA (Table I).
Table I. Correlating criteria of phosmet usage with incidence rates of endemic BSE in various countries (includes all phosmet-using countries)
However, those countries which engaged in extensive Warble Fly eradication programmes, particularly those which used excessively high doses of the organophosphate compound, phosmet, went on to develop the vast majority of BSE cases. Crucially, the UK and Northern Ireland used phosmet at levels at least seven times the manufacturer's recommended dosage rates, and as a result these areas have the largest numbers of BSE, almost 200,000 cases. For a decade, MAFF compelled all British beef and dairy farmers to allow MAFF-appointed officials onto their farms to pour phosmet along the backs of their cattle at a dosage rate of 20 mg/kg twice yearly, with a 14-day repeat of 10mg/kg, when deemed necessary. In Northern Ireland a similar regime was adhered to, but for a shorter period of only four years.
In the Republic of Ireland, which has had about 200 cases of BSE, the dosage rate was only 6mg/kg, the manufacturer's recommendations; there was no 14-day repeat dose, and this successful regime to eradicate Warble Fly was only carried out in parts of the Republic for four years.
What MAFF and DANI have feared is, if it could ever be proven that by compelling farmers within their jurisdictions to comply with their Warble Fly eradication programme, they started a new disease (one that has devastated the UK beef industry and potentially endangered the lives of millions of people) the UK Government could potentially be sued for billions of pounds in compensation.
Mark Purdey, an organic dairy farmer from Somerset, and a grandson of the famous Purdey shotgun makers, successfully took MAFF to court when it tried to dose his pedigree cattle with phosmet. Since that time, Purdey has been intensively researching the effects of phosmet and other organophosphorus compounds, and recently received an invitation to address the new BSE Enquiry.
Officials appointed by Justice Phillips have spent a full day at Purdey's Somerset farm, going through his research in detail, and the mountains of negative correspondence Purdey received from the former Conservative Government's ministers. When Purdey recently addressed the BSE Inquiry, he may have been begun to prove the point that iconoclastic scientists who were(formerly) regarded as head-bangers, cranks and quacks have sometimes proven to have a legitimate viewpoint, one which eventually becomes part of accepted scientific wisdom!
Thomas DowneyFounder of Friar Tuck's chain of restaurants
