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Thursday October 26 8:54 AM ET
By Dominic Evans
LONDON (Reuters) - British government officials mis= led the public for years over the dangers of British beef and the risk of ``mad cow'' (BSE) disease spreading to humans, an official report said on Thursday.
The 2-1/2 year inquiry said officials and mini= sters in Britain's previous Conservative government, haunted by fears of consumer panic and the loss of valuable beef exports, doggedly stuck to a mistaken ``campaign of reassurance.''
Reacting to the report= , Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government said it planned to set up a compensation scheme for the victims of the human form of mad cow disease which killed 70 people.
``The government's preferred option would be to establish a compensation scheme, resulting in a special trust fund which could amount to millions of pounds,'' Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said.
Officials conceded that no one could predict the eventual number of victims of the disease, which has a lengthy incubation period, so the final compensation bill could run much higher.
The report said a civil service commission would investigate whether disciplinary action should be taken over the affair, which devastated Britain's beef farming industry and already has cost the government billions of pounds in compensation to farmers and others.
More than seventy people have so fa= r died from BSE's human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable disease which causes dementia and a lingering death over many months.
``BSE has caused a harrowing fatal disease for humans... (Victims) and their families have suffered terribly. Families all over the UK have been left wondering whether the same fate awaits them,'' the report said.
It condemned repeated government assura= nces that led people to believe ``not merely that was beef safe to eat but that BSE was not transmissible.''
``The impression thus given to the public ... = was a significant factor leading to the public feeling of betrayal when it was announced on 20 March 1996 that BSE was likely to have been transmitted to people,'' the report said.
It also highlighted= ``ignorance and failure of communication'' between government departments and criticized a number of senior officials, but said it was not setting out to pinpoint ``villains or scapegoats.''
Conservatives S= orry
Conservative agriculture spokesman Tim Yeo expressed re= gret over the BSE affair which happened during his party's time in government.
``I want to say I am truly sorry for what has happened. And= I apologize to the families who have suffered bereavement,'' Yeo told parliament. He welcomed plans to arrange compensation for families of the victims.
At the height of the crisis, the then Conserva= tive Minister for Agriculture was shown on television eating a hamburger made from British beef and feeding one to his young daughter in a mistaken bid to show the meat was safe.
The report said officials had n= ot set out deliberately to deceive public opinion.
``The government did not lie to the public abou= t BSE,'' it said.
Eighty-four people have been struck down by new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or vCJD. More than 70 have died and no one is sure how many others may be harboring the disease.
Earlier Stories<=
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Reports Slams UK Government Handling of Mad Cow Crisis (October 26)
UK Report Into BSE Crisis Scheduled for Release Oct 26 (October 20)
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