BRITISH government hopes that the European Commission might drop its demand for a selective cull of cattle to eradicate BSE faded yesterday after new evidence suggested that although the disease will naturally die out in five years' time, only a mass slaughter of the entire British herd could obliterate it before then.
After studying a report published by the Wellcome Trust and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, one former Tory cabinet minister, Mr John Biffen, warned the government it faced a backbench rebellion if the planned selective cull, agreed with the EU, proceeded.
Mr Biffen said there had been "widespread unease" because the cull was seen as an attempt to restore customer confidence rather than being scientifically based, and this theory was now supported by the report's conclusions.
However, although an EU spokesman, Mr Gerard Kiely, agreed the report was "interesting", he stressed that he did not think it would effect the EU's decision on the selective cull of 147,000 British cattle.
"Obviously we are interested in this research. We will ask the [EU] scientific and veterinary committee to examine it. I think it would be very difficult to sell to the European Commission a programme which would involve the elimination of fewer BSE cases, he added.
British farmers welcomed the report, claiming it proved the cull was unnecessary. "It was a political expedient to satisfy some of the other member states in Europe," said Sir David Nash, the president of the National Farming Union.
The Consumer Association highlighted the report's "worrying" claim that 446,000 infected cows were eaten by the public before the government introduced a 11 ban on specified offal being fed to cows in 1989.
According to the report, a further 283,000 infected cows, which had their brains and spinal cords removed, were also estimated to have entered the food chain between 1989 and the end of last year.
Reuter adds: Thousands of farmers blockaded roads across France on Wednesday night, checking lorries suspected of importing non EU beef in a surprise protest at falling prices following the mad cow crisis.
The French farmers' union, which mobilised demonstrators by mobile phone and fax, said about 15,000 farmers erected blockades on main roads and at motorway toll gates in many areas to carry out spot checks.
. A fourth British farmer has died from CJD, reigniting fears that it may be possible to catch the disease from contact with infected animals and feed. The 59 year old farmer died from "sporadic" CJD, according to Dr James Ironside and colleagues at the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, writing in the medical journal, Lancet.
Meanwhile, Stunners used to knock out cows before they are slaughtered could spread potentially infectious brain tissue through their bodies according to research carried out by American veterinarians. Prion proteins, the agent believed to carry the mad cow infection, are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for slaughter, according to one vet. The pneumatic stunner at the centre of the findings is used "50 per cent of the time" in the US and "may still be used in Britain".