Vol.3 - 1. The Early Years, 1986-88 1. The identification of a new disease in cattle Discussion 1.26 Conflicts of evidence are bound to occur when witnesses are asked about events that took place some 15 years ago.
Contemporary documents provide a valuable aid to solving such conflicts.
Having carefully considered all the evidence, we have concluded that Ms Richardson is mistaken in her recollection that, in September 1985, she and her colleagues at the CVL identified the disease affecting Cow 142 as a scrapie-like disease in cattle. While we think that she may well have noticed a pathological similarity to scrapie, we do not believe that she can have concluded that Cow 142 was suffering from a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. It is plain that Ms Richardson had a discussion about Cow 142 with Mr Watkin-Jones in which she commented that the pathological changes were consistent with bacterial toxin. The suggestion made by Ms Richardson that a bacterial toxin might be the cause echoes the manuscript note added to the foot of her Report by Mr Wells. We believe that he must have raised the possibility of bacteraemia on his first review and that Ms Richardson accepted this as a possible cause.