UK. BSE Inquiry Page. www.bse.org.uk for main site.
This page contains Mark's first statement to the BSE Inquiry, 23/3/98, which is a synopsis of his experiences and research (up to 1996) Below are direct links to his subsequent statements on the BSE Inquiry site, which address comments from his critics - ie the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH), John Wilesmith (MAFF), Professor Richard Lacey.
Also included are links to Dr Stephen Whatley's ( Institute of Psychiatry, London) statements. He led the research into the OP Phosmet in cell culture.
LINKS. ( You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to open these pdf. files, available as a free download )
Mark Purdey:
First Statement No. 23 see below.
Supplementary statement : 7/6/99 http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023a.pdf ' My concerns with Phase 1 of the BSE Inquiry surround what I believe to be the inaccuracies and misleading statements made in several of the written documents and hearings involving the various critics of my Organo-phosphate/BSE thesis'....
annex - refs to docs. http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023ax.pdf
annex 1 Feb 98. short statement http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023xi.pdf
annex 2: CV http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023xii.pdf
annex 3: Full text of paper submitted to Redox report (22 pages +refs) http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023xiii.pdf
letter responding to John Wilesmith of MAFF 3/10/99 http://www.bse.org.uk/files/mb/m73/tab12.pdf .
2nd supplement to statement. 23B. 12/01/2000 in response to Roger Cook (NOAH) http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s023b.pdf
Dr Stephen Whatley's Statements
First statement No. 21 http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s021.pdf
Ammendments to first statement. http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s021a.pdf
Annex to first statement. http://www.bse.org.uk/files/ws/s021ax.pdf
BSE Inquiry / Statement No
23
Evidence given on 02/04/98
BSE INQUIRY
Statement of Mark Purdey (23 March 1998)
1984 I was dairy farming at Dene Farm, Halse near Taunton. I had a herd of 80 pedigree Jerseys. My practice had been to use Derris, which is an organic pesticide, to control warble fly when necessary. The substance was on MAFF's approved list until 1982. Under the Warble Fly Order 1982, however, the Ministry required farmers to treat warble with organophosphorus ("OP") twice a year. Studies had indicated that there was a chance that OP residues could contaminate cows' milk after treatment. I was also arguing that these chemicals would cause long-term delayed neuro-toxic damage to susceptible types of cows and humans who were exposed. I feared an epidemic of neuro-degenerative disease would ensue as a legacy of the Warble Fly Order. I had used Derris in the past and it achieved 100 per cent success. Derris is a naturally occurring compound and the warble fly larvae are readily killed by two applications a few days apart. I was aware that if cattle were undergoing simultaneous treatment with fly repellents or worm drenches, as well as the OP warblecide, this could affect the balance in the animal's chemistry. I was also concerned for the welfare of my wife, Margaret, who was then pregnant as there had been cases where farmers' wives had miscarried after coming into contact with OPs. The Ministry did not accept my arguments and, as my cattle were not treated as required under the 1982 Order, they imposed restrictions on my livestock. There was also a threat of prosecution. I wrote several letters, to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture, MPs, MAFF's Advisory Service ("ADAS"), the District Veterinary Officer at Taunton ("DVO"), the Central Veterinary Laboratory ("CVL") and the Health and Safety Executive. The Ministry however did not change their position in support of OP compounds and against Derris (see Mr Lawrence's letter of 25 January 1985 and the Chief Veterinary Officer's letter of 4 February 1985).
The article by Dr Wells and others appeared in the "Veterinary Record" in October 1987. I wrote to "Farmers Weekly" in December 1987 querying why the journal had dubbed my postulated link-up between OP exposure and BSE as "ill-informed rumour mongering". I said that –
"My own independent survey on some of the farms inflicted with this crippling neurotoxicity have revealed that warble fly liquids containing "phosmet" and a brand of feeding stuff (compounded from intesticide-treated raw materials) are the common denominators upon these farms. Either, or both, of these inputs could serve as the delayed neurotoxic culprits to those genetically susceptible Holstein cattle bewitched by BSE."
I also pointed out in my letter that Drs Cavanagh and Bouldin had observed "intraneuronal ballooning vacuoles" and "neurofibrillary proteinaceous conglomerations" in the grey matter of the brain stem in degenerating nerve tissue of animals poisoned by OPs. These features resemble major aspects of BSE pathology.
At the time it was believed that Holstein cattle were more prone to BSE. We now know that BSE is a cross-breed problem.
I wrote a letter to the Farmers Weekly about the report which was published on 3 August 1990. I commented that it seemed "rather foolish that none of the investigative organisations concerned were channelling much energy into solving the missing links surrounding the pathology and prerequisites underlying this "slow viral condition"". I commented further that "I find it interesting that the 250 or so cattle that have grown up through my dairy unit were consistently fed the brands of cake alleged to contain the BSE agent, yet not one of them has developed BSE symptoms. Perhaps the unique feature of my herd is that I have consistently refused and avoided the use of anti- cholinesterase-based insecticides and wormers in my management."
On 14 July 1991 I wrote to the Chief Veterinary Officer at MAFF as well as the DVO at Taunton about my pedigree jersey cow, "Churnside Birthday", that I had bought into my farm from a chemically run farm and which had developed a "staggers" disorder. After observation, my vets considered that the cow was afflicted with BSE. I raised with the Chief Veterinary Officer the conception that exposure to synthetic or naturally occurring neurotoxicants such as anti-cholinesterases or aluminium containing pollutants were upsetting the cow's neuro-psychiatric equilibrium. I also pointed out a publication where OPs had been shown to induce spongiform encephalopathy in three victims. I asked for a guarantee that before I handed over the afflicted cow, I should be granted independent access for examination of CNS tissue. Mr Meldrum, the Chief Veterinary Officer, however replied on 25 July 1991 that the Department could not grant me independent access for examination of central nervous system tissues. On 13 November the DVO at Taunton wrote to me to inform me that the laboratory examination identified lesions consistent with BSE and that disease was confirmed in the animal.
In the summer of 1992 I refused to hand over "Damson" one of my dairy cows for slaughter although she showed signs of BSE. I wanted to continue to treat "Damson" to test my theory that the OP insecticide used against warble fly could be behind the BSE epidemic. A conventional farmer had treated "Damson" with an OP insecticide before I bought her. I took the view that symptoms of the illness, including aggression and nervousness, were signs that cows were suffering from the delayed effects of low dose OP damage upon selective nerve tracts in the brain. I took legal advice from Pannone Napier, the solicitors, about a possible judicial review of the Ministry's actions. I also wrote to Mr Meldrum, the Chief Veterinary Officer at MAFF. Mr Meldrum replied on 14 July 1992 that he had no objection to my carrying out tests on "Damson" while she was under restriction but if she had to be slaughtered he would wish to know what investigations I wished to carry out on her carcass. Also on 14 July Pannone Napier wrote to the DVO at Taunton requesting that the Ministry should allow me not less than 2 weeks to treat "Damson" with oxime and atropine or any other preparation recommended on veterinary advice. The solicitors also asked that the Ministry undertake not to serve Notice of Intended Slaughter without 2 clear working days notice. Pannone Napier enclosed a letter from Professor Lacey to me dated 3 July who said that I had "certainly produced strong evidence for a causal effect between exposure to [OP] chemicals and the precipitation of BSE-related symptoms." The DVO at Taunton replied to Pannone Napier in a letter dated July 1992 agreeing to my request that I be allowed to carry out a course of treatment on "Damson". The DVO also said that he had no objection to delaying the service of the Notice of Intended Slaughter to allow treatment to take place, provided that the cow's welfare was not prejudiced. On 16 July I injected "Damson" with oxime and atropine sulphate, pharmaceuticals carried by troops in the Gulf War as an antidotes to nerve gas. Within 90 minutes the cow appeared to have remitted. On Friday 18 July Mr Budge, my vet and Mr Cohen, the MAFF vet, examined "Damson". Over the following weekend "Damson"'s condition deteriorated. I asked my vet to continue with the injections. On Monday 19 July Mr Cohen visited my farm and told me that "Damson" should be put down. Mr Budge later arrived and said that he had to take further advice before reinjecting "Damson". On 20 July "Damson" was down on the ground. I wanted to go to the High Court to force the Ministry to let me continue the treatment. Mr Cohen then paid me a further visit and I had no choice but to consent to "Damson" being put down on welfare grounds. I was very angry. I thought that someone wanted to avoid the embarrassment of the treatment working. I considered that I was engaging in a scientific experiment. BSE was confirmed on 20 August 1992. I wrote to the Central Veterinary Laboratory ("CVL") on 29 September 1992 about aspects of "Damson"'s case. I wrote that I always assumed that "Damson" had chronic OP induced spongiform encephalopathy. Mr Bradley on behalf of the CVL replied on 5 November that if I was satisfied and agreed the final diagnosis of BSE so be it. If however I was suggesting that the cow had concurrent, chronic OP-induced SE, then CVL wished to see the supporting evidence for my conclusion. I wrote a letter to "Farming News" which was published on 26 March 1993 in which I said that my trials with my own BSE cow Damson were spearheading research into chronic OP pesticide induced BSE. I added that it had been proved that some of the OPs that contaminate the bovine food chain exhibit serotonin agony, cholinestrerase depression and mutagenicity – the dirty three detonators for BSE. (I add that my thinking now is that these facets of OP toxicology are partly irrelevant to the OP induced mechanism). On 21 October 1993 Mr Wilesmith of the CVL wrote to Mr North, a Food Safety Officer, who had written an article entitled "The corruption of science" in UKEPRA News dated 20 August 1993. Mr Wilesmith said that he looked forward to seeing the scientific publication of the effects of oxime which I administered to "Damson". He added that CVL's understanding of the facts was not as reported in Mr North's article and that there seemed to be some dispute as to whether the alleged improvement in the condition of the animal was able to be sustained through the administration of the treatment. Mr North sent me a copy of Mr Wilesmith's letter. My reaction to Mr Wilesmith's letter was that of course I could not sustain the remission because I had not been permitted to complete the therapeutic course.
In April 1993 it appeared to me that "Brainstorm", my two and a half year old Jersey cow, had contracted BSE from its mother, "Churnside Birthday" who had suffered from the disease (see paragraph 8 above) and not from feed containing contaminated protein. "Brainstorm" was born after the 1988 ban on using ruminant protein in feed for other ruminants. The animal was fed exclusively on organic feed and yet had all the signs of BSE. Its only link with the disease was that its mother had it. The Government vet visited my farm on three occasions. On the first occasion the vet placed a Form A Order on the cow. The vet and I had observed symptoms of myoclonus and nystagmus, tremors under the skin, hypersensitivity to touch and sound, fear of entering the milking parlour, weight loss, a vacant expression etc. I started treating with magnesium sulphate in the hope of remitting the symptoms. On 10 May the Government vet revisited my farm and in her view "Brainstorm" no longer exhibited the symptoms suggestible of BSE and, in consequence, withdrew the movement restrictions placed on my cow. The veterinary officer said that the cow did not appear to be totally healthy and suggested that my vet should examine it. "Brainstorm" continued to live and milk on the farm until she was slaughtered in the conventional way in the autumn of 1996.
I continued to write letters about my theory. I wrote to Mr King, my member of Parliament, who in turn on 5 April 1993 wrote to Mr Gummer, the Minister. Mr Gummer's reply on 16 April reiterated the Ministry's view that "detailed studies of the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle have not shown any connection between the use of such chemicals, either in a primary or contributory role, and the incidence of this disease. That this disease has been spread by the use of infected feed, the hypothesis on which the disease control policy is based, has been substantiated by analytical epidemiological studies and by the effects now seen on the incidence of disease in the younger age groups of cattle." I did not accept this view and wrote again to Mr King who forwarded my letter and enclosures to Mrs Shepherd, who was now the Minister of Agriculture. On 16 June Mrs Shepherd replied to Mr King saying that she was advised that OP poisoning differs so greatly from BSE that the link was most unlikely. Nevertheless by August 1993 Mrs Shepherd asked for all MAFF studies on OPs, including flea collars used on cats and dogs as well as on cattle and sheep, so that she could make up her own mind on their safety. Mr Wilesmith of the CVL also told me that their extensive investigations had covered my theory but the Ministry admitted that they had not done detailed studies of delayed effects of cumulative low-dose OP toxicity (Western Morning News 20 August 1993).
Following a further letter which I sent to Mr King MP which he forwarded to Mrs Shepherd, she replied on 17 September suggesting that I should meet her scientific advisers. This would enable me to fully explain my views and the advisers in turn could raise any points which they might have for me to consider. I sent Mr King a pre-publication copy of a paper on BSE, which I had prepared for the Journal of Nutritional Medicine. I sent the paper on an "In Confidence" basis. Mr King forwarded my paper to Mrs Shepherd who replied on 14 October that my paper covered a lot of ground and that the Ministry needed to consider it carefully. In the period before the meeting I became extremely concerned that the Ministry had breached the confidentiality of my paper. The Ministry had complained to the Press Complaints Commission about articles by Mr Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph which had supported my theories on BSE and which had criticised MAFF staff. The Ministry included an evaluation of my theories and they included an extract of the paper, which I had sent to the Minister. Mrs Shepherd wrote to Mr King MP about this on 13 December 1993 and in the circumstances said that they did not regard what they had done as a breach of confidence. I did not accept this understanding of the situation.
1994 –other
events
My peer-reviewed articles were published in the Journal
of Nutritional Medicine in March 1994, J Nutr Med; 4:
43-82. On 16 June I delivered a paper to the British
College of Allergy and Environmental Medicine at a
symposium at the Royal College of Physicians in London. I
questioned whether contaminated feed was responsible for
the BSE epidemic. I said that some 15,000 cattle which
never received contaminated feed because they were born
after the ban on feed made from animal components had
been diagnosed with BSE. In addition some 9,500 of almost
10,000 BSE cases born after the feed ban ("BABS")
were from dams who never showed symptoms of the disease.
This ruled out the possibility that most BABS cases were
due to maternal transmission. I went on to argue that
exposure to OP chemicals was responsible for triggering
BSE in the UK. The pesticides could disrupt normal
protein production, leading to the formation of mutant
protein, which causes BSE. I wrote to Mr Wilesmith on 1
December 1994. I referred to a letter from Professor
Satoshi Ishikawa, the Dean of the Medical School of
Kitasato University, Japan, dated 22 December 1992 who
had said that he felt that my "description of mad
cows and warble fly to organophosphates compounds is
exactly true". Mr Wilesmith replied on 19 December
1994. Mr Wilesmith argued that I was being misled on the
pathology. He suggested that it was strange that there
had not been a plethora of papers describing the
histopathological changes associated with the TSEs as
similar to OP poisoning, chronic or otherwise. I thought
that it was interesting that MAFF had now admitted the
existence of chronic OP poisoning, a phenomenon that they
had already dismissed as illusory beforehand. I was not
surprised that they were trying to break down the
pathological correlation that Professor Ishikawa had
raised in his letter. Professor Ishikawa cites that
specific neurons are vacuolated in OP chronic poisoning.
These were the same neurons, which Wells et al also cited
as vacuolated in their first paper on BSE pathology.
Medical Hypotheses accepted for publication two articles, which I wrote on the BSE epidemic. On 4 April 1995 I submitted a memorandum to the House of Commons Agriculture Committee hearings on the efficiency and effectiveness of pesticide licensing in the UK. In my memorandum I argued that the links postulated between chronic low-level chemical toxicity and various neuro/psychodegenerative syndromes, which included BSE, had to be attended to forthwith. Mr Waldegrave, the Minister, wrote to Mr King on 5 June about my theories and made erroneous statements such as "OPs are not used in Guernsey".
Lauderdale Productions, an independent television company, was contracted by Channel 4 to make a documentary about the OP perspective related to BSE. They contacted Dr David Ray, of the Medical Research Council at Leicester, who had just professed an interest in my theory and had invited me to lecture to his Department at the University of Leicester. The Television Company commissioned Dr Ray to test my theory experimentally. David Ray was aware that my theory homed in on the particular OP, Phosmet. Nevertheless the Television Company and the MRC agreed to conduct tests with a chemical that was conveniently available called DFP. DFP is a markedly different type of OP to Phosmet, which is not used on farms. Reluctantly I agreed to this compromise test but on the basis that the oxone metabolite of DFP, the metabolite common also to Phosmet, was used. As the process of the tests was kept secret from me so that the film would contain a surprise element, I was surprised to learn that the oxone metabolite had never in fact been used in the trial. I was aware from the start that recombinant prion protein without a glycolipid anchor was employed. This however weakened the relevance of this trial to duplication of the effects of this chemical in the real world, because I considered that the glycolipid anchor could play a major role in any interaction between OPs and prion protein and their putative role in triggering BSE. When the MRC received the results, they discarded a minute amount of dose proportional binding of DFP to the prion protein, as mere contamination of the protein with an impurity. I was surprised that despite this no tests had been carried out to ascertain any possible protease resistance of the prion protein, even though this was an agreed criterion of the original proposal. When Channel 4 came to pay for this work, I understand that the MRC replied that the work had already been paid for. They did not state who had paid but they did say, "MAFF owned the work".
I have continued to press the case for my theory since March 1996 in lectures, the media, in correspondence and meetings. Further inaccuracies still emanated from the Ministry. One example was a letter in August or September 1996 from Mr Hogg to Mr King (quoted in Mr King's letter to me of 24 September 1996) where the Minister stated that MAFF had evidence from the authorities in Switzerland that Phosmet was not used in that country. Switzerland had witnessed 250 odd cases of endemic BSE in its cattle herd.
Prior to February 1997, Lord Lucas, the MAFF spokesman in the House of Lords, gave a written answer to a question from Lord Lester in which he said that the Government had asked SEAC to re-examine my theory. He also indicated that the Government was aware of new research from the Institute of Psychiatry into the effects of Phosmet on prion protein cell cultures. The research in question consisted of experiments commissioned by myself and funded by well-wishers. I was angry that Lord Lucas had erroneously stated that the basis of the OP hypothesis had not been published in peer-reviewed journals, despite the fact that Mrs Gurnhill of MAFF in a letter dated 7 February 1995 acknowledged that one of my articles was peer-reviewed.
Issued on behalf of the witness by:
The BSE Inquiry Press Office
6th Floor Hercules House
Hercules Road
London SE1 7DU
Website: http://www.bse.org.uk