London - The cost of clearing up Britain's mad-cow crisis is likely to exceed £3.4 billion, an independent spending watchdog said yesterday. The National Audit Office also warned that it could take until 2003 to incinerate huge stocks of meat, bone meal and tallow from cattle slaughtered because they were judged at risk from the disease.
The report said total spending on tackling the disease, compensating farmers and paying slaughterhouses, renderers and other professionals was almost £1.5 billion between 1996 and 1997, of which £800 million would come from the European Union.