THE Mad Cow Disease crisis deepened across East Lancashire today as the battered beef industry continued to grind to a halt.

More than 40 staff at Rose County Foods' abattoirs in Gisburn Road, Sawley, have lost their jobs, it was revealed today.

And auction marts at Haslingden and Clitheroe were virtually deserted as fears grew that BSE maybe linked to the human killer Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

The devastating effect on East Lancashire's economy began to take hold as Eurocrats introduced a blanket ban on beef exports.

A spokeswoman for Rose County Foods confirmed that 30 per cent of the workforce had been made redundant as slaughter houses across the district stood empty.

Richard Read, director of Portfield Abattoir in Whalley, said no cows had been delivered to his slaughter house this week.

"It's been all sheep and pigs and things are looking very grim," he said.

"There have been no redundancies here, but we are forecasting not working on one day a week."

And John Sayer, group accountant at Great Harwood Food Products, said the BSE crisis had had a dramatic effect on business.

He said only two years ago the firm was collecting the Queen's Award for World Export Achievement from Buckingham Palace.

Farmers were starting to count the cost of the crisis as sales of British beef were at a virtual standstill with customers voting with their purses to shun BSE-tainted meat and buy alternative products.

Ian Heywood, managing director of Wiswell Moor Meats Ltd, Whalley, said the BSE scare was already ravaging the industry.

"People have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in bringing meat plants up to EC standards and most have borrowed heavily to do this."

Haslingden Auction Mart suffered one of its worst days in living memory yesterday .

Only six cows and 20 calves went under the hammer, compared with about 80 cows and 100 calves on a normal Monday. The six cows failed to find buyers and the calf prices were down.

John Swingler, auctioneer manager at Clitheroe Auction Mart, said trade was greatly reduced. He said the recent media attention had had a devastating effect on business.

The National Farmers' Union blasted the Europe-wide ban on beef exports as "perverse" and said there would be "extremely grave" industrial consequences.

And Lancashire South Euro-MP Michael Hindley today demanded compensation from Europe for the suffering beef industry.

Lancashire County Council leader Louise Ellman attacked Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell for failing to restore the "total breakdown" of public confidence over the Government's ability to handle public health issues on BSE.

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