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Mad Cow Update


January 8th, 2004

By Ken McGrath : eCureMe Staff Writer
January 7th, 2004 : Physician Reviewed


Three weeks after meat from a slaughtered Washington state dairy cow tested positive for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - commonly known as Mad Cow disease - efforts to get a handle on the situation have yielded mixed results.


Results from DNA tests carried out by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Canadian authorities have confirmed that the infected cow came from an area of Alberta, Canada where another cow with BSE was identified last summer. Both cows most likely contracted BSE from a batch of infected feed. According to experts, the finding is good news. Speaking on Fox News, David Ropeick from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis said, " [the DNA test result] increases the likelihood that [the Washington] cow and the Canadian cowˇ¦were fed from the same contaminated batch of feed. Which would, if it’s true, would be good news. Because instead of two bad batches of feed contaminating separate animals, there’d be only one."


Officials are still trying to track down over eighty head of cattle imported into the country along with the infected heifer. The rest of the herd poses a danger because, potentially, they could have consumed the same infected feed. Three herds of cattle in Washington have been quarantined on that suspicion. 450 calves were slaughtered to insure offspring of the infected heifer didn’t enter the food supply.


The USDA has issued a recall of meat product processed in the same plant, on the same day, as the infected cow. However, shipments of beef bones included in the recall reached at least five Vietnamese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area and were served to customers. Local officials insist that even with the bones being consumed, the risk of contracting variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is less than "one in ten billion".


Though no cases of vCJD have yet been reported in the U.S., the continuing efforts to contain the disease have done little to educate shoppers. As the root of Mad Cow and vCJD is the protein content in the feed cattle consume, experts advise that consumers wary of the disease ask their butchers for beef raised on vegetarian grain or natural grasses. Steaks, and most muscle cuts of meat, are generally agreed to be low risk. Some scientists, however, caution that cuts that might come in contact with brain or nervous system material - such as beef tongue and cheek - may be higher risk. Ground beef is safest when consumers grind it themselves in a food processor. Prepackaged ground beef can contain meat scraps from a number of animals. Some ground beef, sausage and hot dog meat may even contain nervous system material, depending on how it was butchered.


Consumers seeking information should go to the Department of Agriculture’s website (www.usda.gov) or call the department’s toll free information line at 1-800-USDACO.




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