Lab bosses called to explain errors


17 December 2001



Lab bosses called to explain errors

By FWi staff

GOVERNMENT officials are to meet representatives from the laboratory at the centre of the latest drama involving errors in animal disease testing.

Civil servants will be looking for clarification on how errors crept into genotype results sent to five farms taking part in the National Scrapie Plan.

This comes only weeks after it was discovered scientists looking into the possibility of BSE in sheep had been testing cattle rather than sheep brains.

A statement issued on Friday (14 December) said quality-control arrangements had identified errors in results put out by private sector contracting body LGC.

The problem is thought to stem from software controlling the robotic sample handling and reporting system at the laboratory, one of two involved in testing.

Junior Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister Elliot Morley said that teething troubles had always been a possibility.

That is why we have taken great care to put in place strict quality control and checks.

I am glad that our quality-control arrangements have been robust enough to pick up these wrong results at an early stage, he said.

The minister pledged the government would refund the farmers involved for the costs of the tests and pay for any re-testing.

We will make sure that farmers are not disadvantaged, he promised.

Officials said no animals had been slaughtered in any of the flocks affected because of the wrong test results.

As a precaution, Defra would contact all other farmers – nine in total – whose results came from the same laboratory.

Meanwhile, Defra has been forced to triple the amount of compensation on offer for confirmed scrapie cases in a bid to improve reporting of the notifiable disease.

New legislation was laid on Friday to increase payments from about 30 to 90, except for female culls, where a flat rate of 30 will apply.

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