IT is almost beyond belief that Government scientists could have spent years analysing the wrong animal's brain to find traces of BSE. Before the outbreak of foot and mouth disease the most serious animal and human health issue to hit the UK in recent history was the scare over the so-called mad cow disease.

John Major regarded it as the biggest crisis to hit his administration.

Unlike foot and mouth, there is no known recovery from BSE and, also unlike foot and mouth, there appears to be transmission from bovine to man.

Many scientists expressed opinions on the disease, especially, it seemed to me, the ones needing their research grants continuing.

The effect on the UK beef industry was catastrophic.

Exports were banned and businesses were ruined. Worst of all, people died.

The reputation of the scientists, ministers and the industry was seriously tarnished by their handling of this problem.

Reassurance after reassurance proved to be based on scientific foundations which were shaky and now look like not much more than wishful thinking.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that no stone is being left unturned to try to establish whether sheep have this brain infection which may be transmissible to man.

Scrapie, to which BSE is compared, is, after all, a disease of sheep.

So how it is possible for these scientific experts to test the wrong brains is unimaginable to laymen. We would have been sacked for such an error.

There are persistent rumours which imply the Government are using the present animal health scares to reduce the size of the livestock industry. This seems far-fetched to me, because it requires an enormous degree of organisation and secrecy.

The former Minister of Agriculture, Douglas Hogg, said that in circumstances like these, if interpretation of facts could lead one to believe that there had either been a cock-up or a conspiracy then it was normally a cock-up.

I imagine this rule applies in this case as well.

Everyone would welcome a definitive statement about whether there is any risk or not and if there is, how to avoid it. The continual association of sheep and BSE only serves to unsettle consumers' nerves and prevents the development of new markets.

During recent years, a considerable trade has been developed in exporting live UK lambs to the Continent. More than 30 per cent of the lamb produced in this country in exported, mostly as live exports.

There are many views on whether this trade is ethical but it is legal and takes place under strict welfare guidelines. During the foot and mouth outbreak the export of UK livestock has been banned.

This has resulted in a huge oversupply of the UK market by home produced lamb. Many of the supermarkets also have contracts with foreign suppliers, such as New Zealand, which they are having to fulfill.

The situation faced by sheep farmers is potentially disastrous. The truth is that there is far too much sheep meat, in one form or another, now on sale. Until production is reduced, or new outlets found, there will be no balance in the market.

This is not going to happen overnight.

What the sheep producers want is a proper return from the market. They do not want subsidies, they want a greater share of the retail price of the finished product.

There is enough money in the chain from field to plate for all those involved to make a satisfactory living.

The problem, at present, is that the profit lies in too few hands.