(Photograph) - A cow carcass with suspected BSE infection is incinerated at Cluttons animal slaughterers in Wrexham. This year the BBSRC will plough Pounds 4.5 million into BSE research. Understanding the biology of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - including sheep scrapie, cattle BSE and several related human conditions including CJD - forms a significant part of BBSRC's overall research programme which, in 1997-98, saw Pounds 34.2 million spent on agri-food research, Pounds 26.3 million on plant and microbial research, Pounds 25 million on animal sciences, and Pounds 24.7 million on both biomolecular sciences and genes and developmental biology. Photograph: Nigel Dickinson/Still Pictures.