Lucky for us we're steak addicts . . . and Kobe beef doesn't have this kind of problem!
Posted on 12/28/2003 9:03:31 AM PST by yonif
WASHINGTON (AP)--Investigators disclosed Sunday that they have found meat cut from a Holstein sick with mad cow disease was sent to four more states and one territory.
Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an Agriculture Department veterinarian, said investigators have now determined that some of the meat from the cow slaughtered Dec. 9 went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam. Earlier, officials had said most of the meat went to Washington and Oregon, with lesser amounts to California and Nevada, for distribution to consumers.
He stressed, though, that the parts most likely to carry the infection--the brain, spinal cord and lower intestine--were removed before the meat from the infected cow was cut and processed for human consumption.
``The recalled meat represents essentially zero risk to consumers,'' Petersen said.
Although federal officials maintain the food supply is safe, they have recalled as a precaution an estimated 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and from 19 other cows all slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Wash.
Petersen, of the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the department still is recovering meat and won't know if all of it has been returned until later this week.
Officials say the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., and sent Dec. 12 to two other plants, Willamette Valley Meat and Interstate Meat, both near Portland, Ore.
Petersen has said that much of the meat is being held by those facilities.
Petersen said Willamette also received beef trimmings--parts used in meats such as hamburger. He said those trimmings were sold to some three dozen small, Asian and Mexican facilities in Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.
In response, representatives from supermarket chains in the West _ Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway and WinCo Foods have voluntarily removed ground beef products from the affected distributors. Safeway has said it will look for another supplier.
Mad cow disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a concern because humans who eat brain or spinal matter from an infected cow can develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In Britain, 143 people died of it after an outbreak of mad cow in the 1980s.
Despite assurances that meat is safe, Japan, the top importer of American beef, and more than two dozen countries have blocked U.S. beef imports. Jordan joined the list on Sunday. U.S. beef industry officials estimated this week that they've lost 90 percent of their export market. Ranchers export 10 percent of the beef they produce.
U.S. agriculture officials arrived Sunday in Japan to discuss maintaining beef trade even as the United States investigates how the Holstein in Washington state got mad cow disease.
Dr. Ron DeHaven, the department's chief veterinarian, said on Saturday that investigators have tentatively traced the first U.S. cow with mad cow disease to Canada. This could help determine the scope of the outbreak and might even limit the economic damage to the American beef industry.
The tentative conclusion traced the diseased cow to the province of Alberta, where Canada had found another case of mad cow infection last May.
However, DeHaven re-emphasized Sunday that investigators aren't certain of that because U.S. records outlining the animal's history do not match ones in Canada. Canadian officials had complained it was premature to reach any firm conclusion.
DeHaven said Sunday that DNA tests were being arranged to help resolve the matter.
Canadian papers show the cow had two calves before it was exported to the United States, contrary to U.S. documents which classified the animal as a heifer when it arrived, meaning it had never born calves.
Also, according to Canadian documents, the diseased cow was 6 1/2-years-old--older than U.S. officials had thought. U.S. records say the cow was 4- or 4 1/2-years-old.
Officials are concerned about the cow's age because it may have been born before the United States and Canada in 1997 banned certain feed that is considered the most likely source of infection.
A cow gets infected by eating feed containing tissue from the spine or brain of an infected animal. Farmers used to feed their animals such meal to fatten them.
Hello! How big WAS this cow, anyway? I know Holsteins are BIG animals, but...
My sentiments exactly. I need to talk to my nephew (he raises the beef we eat in this family)...
The brains are what is dangerous that and the spinal chord the rest is good stuff !
WRT BSE/vCJD: this article is a little old, but....
Monday, May 17, 1999 Published at 12:52 GMT 13:52 UK
BSE 'may never have posed human danger'
BSE-infected beef may have never posed a risk to human health, researchers have said.
BBC Environment Correspondent Robert Piggott reports Their studies seem to suggest it would be extremely unlikely that the disease would pass from cow to cow, let alone from cow to human.
They have now received funding from the Ministry of Agriculture to see if they can confirm their findings.
The UK Government banned some beef products as a result of public health fears, and many countries have banned the import of British beef.
It had been thought that eating beef from cattle suffering Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - or mad cow disease - could lead to a variant form of the human brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD).
Bacteria threat
The scientists involved in the research claim that CJD is in fact caused by the body's own reaction to a bacterium found commonly in contaminated water and the soil.
Professor Alan Ebringer assesses the impact of his work This, they say, would explain such oddities as the fact that one of the victims of nvCJD was a vegetarian.
If they turn out to be right it would mean that the entire campaign to protect consumers by eradicating BSE - costing £3.5 bn, and wrecking the British beef industry - has been wasted.
The Ministry of Agriculture has offered Alan Ebringer, professor of immunology at King's College London, £250,000 to further his research.
Professor Ebringer told the BBC's World At One programme the work could have wide implications.
"If this theory can be confirmed by further studies it would indicate that meat is safe for human consumption, and there was never any danger of developing CJD by eating meat," he said.
Immune system disease
The principle he is examining suggests that BSE is similar to an autoimmune disease.
Autoimmune diseases are caused by the body attacking itself - immune cells think the body's own tissue is foreign and seek to eradicate it.
Professor Ebringer thinks BSE is caused by bacteria - called Acinetobacter - that are similar to brain cells.
He said: "When antibodies are made against the bacterium there are also auto-antibodies made against the brain tissue of the cow which then leads to the development of a neurological disease we call BSE."
The bacteria could be picked up from water, soil or feed, but a cow would have to be exposed to a lot of it to develop the disease, he said.
Minority position
He admitted that his theories put him in a minority.
Prevailing opinion suggests that nvCJD disease is caused by proteins called prions, and that it is possible abnormal prions could be passed on through infected meat.
Professor Ebringer said his position may have been drowned out by the "prion noise", but he remained undeterred in pursuing his research.
"All discoveries start with a minority of one so that the person who has made the discovery has to convince his colleagues and his peers that his data and evidence can be submitted to peer analysis," he said.
Yea, a different problem is keeping me away from it at the moment. ;)
Mexican facilities! Here in Arizona, I know that the Mexicans eat "menudo" or tripe. They do this especially after holiday or other parties to curb a hangover (so I'm told! I've never tried it).
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