Why I

...would happily eat a BSE hamburger

The first time I saw a BSE cow in 1989, I was struck by how similar its behaviour was to that of people with multiple sclerosis. MS sufferers can use their hands to eat, but they have difficulty walking. Betsy stood on her front legs, but had no control over her backside. It occurred to me then that BSE might be an autoimmune disease, like MS. If so, it was not contagious and people had nothing to fear from eating BSE beef.

Autoimmune diseases are triggered by bacteria that mimic or resemble the molecular structure of normal human tissue. The immune system attacks the bacteria, but also the healthy tissue because the two are so similar.

We requested BSE-infected blood from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, but it took ages. But it is always like this in science when you come up with a new theory. Everyone is wedded to the prion theory - that BSE is caused by a contagious protein unlike any other known infectious agent. Most money goes into prion research, little into autoimmune research. Prestigious research journals will not publish our work. No one wants to admit they have been advocating a fiction.

About 18 months ago, we finally got BSE blood from MAFF. We found it contained antibodies against the microbe Acinetobacter, a common bacterium found in water, soil and sewage. It also lives on our skin, ready to infect open wounds and cuts, and mimics part of the normal brain tissue of cows.

We concluded that BSE is caused by the immune system's response to infection by this microbe. It would have been present in the meat and bone meal cows were fed before 1988, and, unlike rogue prions, would have been killed by the high temperatures used to treat meal before 1982. This explains why BSE became widespread after that date, when the meal was heated to a lower temperature.

BSE is not, I believe, infectious and cannot be transmitted to humans who eat meat. We believe CJD is also an autoimmune disease caused by bacteria. In that case, millions of cows have been slaughtered needlessly and people have avoided meat for no reason. I would happily eat a BSE-infected hamburger, but I would not eat a spoonful of Acinetobacter.

* Interview by Kathryn Jackson.