AS the foot-and-mouth saga drifts on - destined, I predict, to continue until we ring vaccinate - news emerges of that far worse animal health scourge, BSE.

It's well known that BSE, the mad-cow disease of popular concept, is linked to feeding cattle, herbivores, with ground-up bits of animals, particularly the brains of sheep. But while BSE didn't appear until the 1980s, animal remains have been fed to cattle since the 1920s. And the practice was common in numerous countries, including the US, with much larger herds than Britain. So why did BSE show first here?

Chaired by Professor Gabriel Horn, of Cambridge University, a committee set up by the Government to investigate this issue, has pinpointed a change in feeding practices 30 years ago. As a cheaper alternative to powdered milk and soya, British farmers began feeding meat and bonemeal to very young calves.

Only Australia did likewise. But Australia's sheep are free of scrapie, the brain disorder that was here transmitted to cattle. Prof Horn's committee sums up: "The diet of many calves was changed so that meat and bonemeal was included in their starter rations. Furthermore, the meat and bonemeal is likely to have included a relatively high level of scrapie-infected material. Changes in rendering processes (lower temperatures, approved by the Thatcher government) may have resulted in a small but clinically significant increase in the degree of infectivity of this material in meat and bonemeal.''

As Horn says, the very young suckling calves fed with this suspect food might have been unusually susceptible to the BSE agent. What a sorry tale of greed right down the line. But have we learned our lesson? No.

Now it is revealed that two American companies intend to mass-produce cloned chickens. The US Government has provided $3m towards the technology. The pressure group Compassion in World Farming says: "We need to change farming practices, not change animals by tampering with their genetic make up.'' Absolutely right. But what puzzles me is where the people come from to pioneer such hideous schemes. Technically clever and highly educated they might be, but they lack what should underpin everything we do - respect for life.

WITH about half its rights of way now reopened, North Yorkshire County Council is urging walkers to keep dogs under control. Consumer services director Gordon Gresty says: "Dogs running loose is one of the major complaints we receive from farmers who have open rights of way on their land.'' Presumably Mr Gresty will be making sure that dogs on grouse shoots, many of which are taking place even where paths aren't open, are also kept well under control.

WHENEVER the travails of Marks and Spencer are dragged through the media, the name of one competitor is always trotted out: Gap. Now it turns out that Gap, with recent profits down 51 per cent, is doing worse than M&S. Meanwhile, no one ever points to what I suspect takes more sales from M&S's womenswear division than Gap - mail order catalogues. Once clad head to toe by M&S, my wife has found the catalogues not only offer the classic styles that seem to have vanished from M&S, but their clothes generally have a better fit. The proliferation of these catalogues suggests that thousands of women share that experience. 3.

Published: August 22, 2001