Govt pours scorn on mad hens claim

29 August 1997

Govt pours scorn on mad hens claim

By FW staff

THE Government says it has found not evidence to support an independent scientists claims that he found BSE in two chickens.

Scientist Harash Narang prompted press speculation earlier this year over the possibility that BSE might have passed to chickens, after he claimed to have found evidence of the disease in two hens.

Dr Narang said he had found what “must be regarded as very strong evidence demonstrating that the hens had been incubating spongiform encephalopathy”.

The Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) asked him to supply brain tissue samples from the birds for examination at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) at Weybridge and Lasswade.

In a letter to the Veterinary Record, Richard Cathorne, MAFFs assistant chief vet, said the VLAs investigations revealed no evidence of spongiform change. But there was evidence in one brain of a disease called meningoencephalitis.