Former York microbiologist Stephen Dealler has spoken of his lonely quest for the truth about BSE in the face of hostility from officialdom.

Dr Dealler, who warned in the Evening Press in 1994 that hundreds of thousands of people were potentially at risk from mad cow disease, told the BSE inquiry that it should not have been down to him to research the problem.

He said the work should have been done by experts from official organisations such as public health laboratories.

But he claimed that many scientists were under pressure not to get involved.

He said that when North Yorkshire public health consultant Dr Will Patterson had written a paper about possible public health risks, he had been "incredibly nervous" about the reaction of his employers.

And he said that he, Dr Dealler, and other scientists who did speak out, such as Professor Richard Lacey, were accused of putting the British beef industry at risk.

He also suspected that pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture had made it hard for him to find publishers for academic papers he had written.

He said he only turned to the mass media to put the message across, in 1993 when he worked at York District Hospital, after he found that the official channels were blocked.

Dr Dealler also spoke of his concerns about the health risks which he believed workers had been exposed to in abattoirs. "When I visited an abattoir, people were just covered in blood and material, and they didn't wear gloves or glasses."

His comments will fuel concerns that former York abattoir worker Len Franklin, who died of CJD, may have contracted the illness from his occupation, despite an inquest verdict that it was unconnected.

Dr Dealler also told how a farmer from near Skipton had bought cattle in the early stages of BSE from other farmers at low prices, so he could claim compensation from the Ministry of Agriculture when their symptoms were sufficient to be accepted as mad cow disease victims. The other farmers did not want to have a case of BSE on their farm.

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