§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 29 January 2002,Official Report, column 240W, on genotype test errors, what plans she has to review the work carried out by LGC on the potential contamination of sheep brains with bovine material in October 2001. [33775]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 6 February 2002]: No errors were made by LGC in the tests of sheep and cow brains used for BSE research. An error had previously been reported on an entirely different test on sheep blood samples which used a robotic sampling system. The cross-checking genetic test of the brains in the flawed IAH experiment did not use this robotic system and was performed at a different laboratory at the LGC. LGC have performed an internal audit of this and are satisfied that the sheep and cow brains samples were correctly handled and that the results can be traced back to the correct samples.