SHEEP farmers in North Yorkshire say they feel "utter despair" over the mismanagement of BSE tests on sheep.

And a Conservative MP has called on the Government to come up with financial support to prevent then going bankrupt.

The tests, which had been underway for some time, were intended to see if mad cow disease had spread to the national sheep flock.

But it was revealed recently that Government scientists had been testing the brains of cows instead of sheep.

Ron Foster, a Rosedale sheep farmer, said: "To be back where we were four or five years ago leaves me hardly able to describe my feelings of utter despair.

"It is certainly true that this is going to have very damaging effects on the economy of sheep farmers.

"We were looking forward to the results of these tests in the confident knowledge that sheep would be exonerated.

"The public need to be reassured that there is nothing wrong with eating sheep meat before they start thinking there is no smoke without fire."

Rosie Dunn, who has a flock of 250 breeding ewes on her farm at Stockton-on-the-Forest, near York, and is vice-chairman of the York county branch of the National Farmers' Union, said farmers would be angered by the revelations.

"It is more bad news that we really do not need.

"Sheep farmers have been struggling really hard and we do not need a botch-up of this sort to affect the sales we have got at the moment.

"We are already greatly restricted by the export ban and abattoirs are taking advantage by pushing prices down."

Ryedale MP John Greenway said sheep farmers in North Yorkshire and around Britain were paying the price of the Government's failure to support them.

"People must understand that these mistakes are not without cost and those who will bear this are the sheep producers who continue to live in uncertainty," he said.

"There used to be quite a market in cull ewes but because of this removal cost the older sheep are worthless.

"Now the procedure will be on going for quite some time yet and the people in the uplands will still be losing money.

"These people will be absolutely dismayed that this has been such a shambles because they want it stopped once and for all.

"No one is saying that these tests should not take place but it is back to the drawing board as we start all over again.

"And these are the producers who can least afford to wait."

Updated: 09:22 Thursday, November 01, 2001