Letter: We can choose how our food is produced

OFFICIAL figures show that 161,000 cows out of a herd of 11 million have BSE, about 1.4 per cent ("BSE `more widespread than feared' ", 31 March). Sincevirtually all cattle are killed prematurely, before they develop the symptoms of the disease, Harash Narang's findings that 29 per cent of cattle in slaughterhouses are carrying BSE is plausible. If this is the true infection rate among cattle, why should we believe that CJD in humans is likely to be restricted to a handful of cases each year? Wouldn't we be more realistic to expect a rate of CJD between 1.4 per cent and 29 per cent: in other words between 700,000 and 16 million cases?

Rudolph Butterworth

London N4