Volume 1: Findings and Conclusions
12. Science and research

1117 Although only one member of our Committee is a scientist, our terms of reference have required us to review, at second hand, a substantial body of scientific learning and research. We are required to establish the history of the emergence of BSE. In order to attempt to answer the questions of where BSE came from and why it emerged in this country we have had to consider, among other things:

• epidemiological research;
• evidence on the technical aspects of rendering and the inactivating effect of rendering processes on TSE agents;
• transmission properties of BSE compared with those of scrapie; and
• strain-typing of the BSE agent after transmission to mice.

1118 More fundamentally, we have had to consider the complex research on the very nature of TSEs. This is critical to the theory, now widely accepted, that BSE has been transmitted as a result of recycling bovine protein that included infective prion protein.

1119 In the course of our Inquiry we have received evidence from scientists who espouse alternative theories, for example:

• the organophosphate theory; and
• the autoimmune theory.

We have had to consider whether these were viable alternatives to the prion protein theory.

1120 More generally, our requirement to review the adequacy of the response to BSE, taking into account 'the state of knowledge at the time', has required us to follow the development of scientific knowledge about BSE between 1986 and 1996, paying particular attention to those aspects which had a bearing on the likelihood that BSE might be transmissible to man.

1121 We are also required to establish the history of the emergence of vCJD. This has required us to consider the scientific research, both before and after 20 March 1996, which has focused on the question of whether the link between BSE and vCJD is clearly established.