Letter: BSE: doubts over relevance of the link with scrapie

Letter: BSE: doubts over relevance of the link with scrapie

Sir: Beef sales will surely plummet even further this weekend as people heed the warnings over mad cow disease. But those who are truly concerned with keeping their family healthy would do better to avoid the meat aisle all together.

Meat eating has been conclusively linked with the nation's top killers - heart disease, stroke and certain forms of cancer. Ninety-five per cent of all food poisoning is caused by animal products, with salmonella, campylobacter, and e-coli bacteria killing hundreds of Britons every year. With tasty vegetarian food so widely available, is eating meat really worth these risks?

Toni Vernelli

People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals

London NW1