BSE BEEF COULD STILL BE ON SALE; 'Healthy' cattle can carry disease -

BEEF products infected with BSE could still be on sale to the British public.

Food safety experts yesterday admitted they may now screen "healthy" cattle at abattoirs at random.

The move follows research that shows cattle can carry the virus without showing any symptoms.

British law only requires single cows be destroyed when BSE is found - not the whole herd.

Experts fear that apparently healthy cattle from infected herds could harbour the virus - then be slaughtered for their meat.

Screening by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the first admission that BSE-infected meat may still be entering the food chain.

And some experts now fear that at its peak the disease could lead to the deaths of up to 200,000 in the country. So far, 78 Britons have died.

Estimates are impossible to make because no one understands the incubation period of the disease or whether it varies because of the way a human becomes infected.

Research published in August found that mice could carry and pass on the infection - without ever displaying any of its tell-tale signs.

The fear is that the hidden form of the disease could mean meat from infected animals is passing into supermarket and shop beef.

The FSA - a government body appointed after a series of food health scares - was under pressure to start screening in August.

Professor John Collinge, leading authority on CJD from St Mary's Hospital, West London, found the human variant of mad cow disease, vCJD, may be able to jump species without killing its carrier.

The study also found animals can pass it on to its offspring.

In some cases the Professor discovered that these "carrier" mice had higher levels of infection. Last night he said: "It has always been a concern why only one cow gets the disease when the herd have all been exposed to contaminated feed.

"We've been raising this point since 1996. It is possible they are all infected."

Last night a spokesman for the FSA confirmed it was considering a screening programme.

Meanwhile, Professor Colin Blakemore, a physiologist at Oxford University, spoke of his fears after the death of a 74-year-old man from new variant CJD.

Prof Blakemore said: "The possibility that there could be a flood of CJD cases among the elderly is extremely worrying."

The revelation follows last week's publication of a pounds 27million government inquiry into mad cow disease.

The report revealed a culture of secrecy and a failure to heed warnings from scientists.

At least two former Ministers face accusations in the Commons that they misled the BSE inquiry.

Last night the FSA confirmed it will also study links between BSE and milk. Dairy cattle have most incidents of the disease.

In 1992 farmers had to slaughter 36,000 cows believed to be infected with BSE. Six years later that figure had dropped to 4,031.

So far this year 1,348 cows have been slaughtered because they were showing signs of the disease.

Last night Frances Hall, secretary of the Human BSE Foundation who lost her son Peter in 1996 to the disease, said: "I can't see any reason why the law stands as it is, apart from a financial one."

Q&AQ The BSE report talked about a "culture of secrecy" within Government and among civil servants. Has this now ended?

A The secrecy continues more or less unabated.

Q What do you mean?

A There is a committee called SEAC which advises the Government on BSE. Meetings are held in private and there is no public record of what they have been discussing.

Q Don't we take the risky bits of the cow out to make it safe?

A Yes. We do now...but for years we did not. Now we chop the head off and remove the spinal cord as they are the two areas of an infected animal that have the most infection.

Q But at least all animals going into the food trade have this material removed?

A Not all. If they're killed privately on a farm for "private consumption" there is no check.

Q Surely that puts the farmer and his family at risk?

A The Food Standards Agency are worried by evidence that a lot of this "private meat" is ending up in butcher's shops, sold at discount to unscrupulous traders.

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