The Ministry of Incompetence

Buried cows tell no tales. Which is a pity, because there are 500 of them buried under a landfill site near Burnley, in Lancashire. If only dead BSE-infected cows could talk, they might explain what has been going on at the tip for the past seven years. Have they been polluting the water? Could infective bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions have been passed to people or animals in the area?

Certainly, a dead cow could not do a worse job of explaining it than the humans who are supposed to know did yesterday. In the world of BSE, trying to find out any fresh fact is a slow, circular process that usually ends in frustration. And at the centre you always find the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff). A year of the beef crisis, and its links with 13 human deaths, have not changed that.

In 1990 the Burnley Express revealed that BSE-infected cattle were being buried at the Rowley site. Councillors were horrified. Action was demanded; none was taken. The cows rotted. But although the heads of the cattle had been removed before burial, the spinal cords and spleen remained. That meant the prions, the infective agent, might leach into the water supply via rivers, and from there into the water supply. BSE-infected carcasses have not been buried since 1991, when government scientists suddenly woke up to the infection risk.

But before that, 6,117 cattle were buried, including those at Rowley. Yesterday morning I asked the Maff press office if it could confirm there were BSE carcasses at the Rowley tip. "That information isn't held centrally," the spokeswoman said.

I called Burnley District Council. Did the environmental health officers know anything about the possible leaching from the site? "I think that tip is handled by Lancashire County Council," the man said.

I called Lancashire County Council. The environmental health team was not sure if there were BSE carcasses in the tip. I should speak to the council's regional veterinary manager. So, did he know if there were BSE carcasses at the tip? He pondered briefly. "In the early days of the BSE epidemic the procedure wasn't so refined. But the carcasses were licensed to go to specific destinations. So yes, there would be records of movements. I think Maff would know that. Have you tried their offices in Tolworth? I think that any information about this would have been sent there when there were burials rather than incinerations. Ask for the BSE section."

I called the Maff offices in Tolworth and asked for the BSE section. "Ah," they said. "Have you spoken to the press office?" Yes. I had. "I'll get right back," said the spokeswoman.

While I waited for the cycle to draw towards its inevitable end, I called Jeffrey Almond, a member of the Government's advisory committee, SEAC. I asked him if the buried cows were a risk. "Did they still have their spinal cords?" he asked. Yes, I told him. "Then they would very likely have infectivity," he said. Would the prions pose a risk if they got in to the water, I asked. He demurred. He didn't think that they would have a landfill with a river running through it. At that point, neither of us had heard from John Voos, the Independent's photographer, who had visited the site and been stunned by the streams of water running through the landfill. He had gone over and seen the waste bubbling out from below the landfill into the water, he told me later. I called the Maff press office again. A different person assured me they would find out what was happening at Tolworth. I never heard from them again either.

And I still do not know what the cattle which were buried 10ft down in a landfill in Lancashire have been doing for seven years. Maybe Maff does. But if so, it is as silent about it, as silent as a headless cow.