Mad Cow, part deux

[Leslie w]

OK! OK! I brought this up before so I have to bring it up again. Now that they have confiscated sheep from a VT farmer and will test them for Mad Cow disease has this changed anyone attitudes about red meat in the USA? Since this incident, my dh has said to me that he feels we should avoid it until we hear good news (which may take several years). So in the meantime it will be fish, poultry and pork for us. He feels that cattle ranchers have not taken this disease seriously and their overconfidence may be a death sentence. This is from someone who's had two serious illnesses from food related bacteria so I can understand his concerns.

[kwormann]

when did this happen???I didnt hear about it!

[CeeCee]

I agree with your DH - I too feel our government is not taking this seriously! There was a program on 60 minutes II last week which was scary. I'm feeling like we should avoid beef and lamb as well.

[KValley]

Add to the sheep in Vermont a small herd of cattle in Texas imported from Germany that are set to be destroyed for fear that they have been infected with BSE (bovine spongiform encelphalopathy) or "mad cow".

At the moment, the issue seems to be livestock imported from Europe which may have consumed contaminated feed in the mid 90s prior to their export to the US (or elsewhere). BSE is devasting the economies of Europe- it has basically shut down the livestock exports of the UK, which is now also grappling with hoof and mouth disease, and that too is spreading to the continent.

CHeck out articles on cnn.com ...

I guess this all begs the question of How do we know the origin of our supermarket beef (or mutton, if you are so inclined)? I had never really thought about the US importing beef from abroad- is it all that common? I live in cattle ranch country, so I assumed we pretty much grow our own here.

The POSSIBLE implications of BSE in the US are really scary- economically as well as for health concerns. Red meat is a great rarity for us, so I hadn't really considered how this affects me personally, but all the more reason to opt for fish and poultry, eh?

Did anyone catch the NPR segment last week on kangaroo meat? I had some in Australia last year- it was really excellent. Food for thought! Exports are growing for the Aussies, no surprise.

[lanie]

Are you talking mad cow or hoof'n'mouth - have not heard that it had 'hit' Vermont - that is awful - in Toronto here - but that is getting close - fortunately, we have our own cattle, whom btw, are almost hand fed, I make my own dog food with it so God Forbid!!!

Elaine

[Marsha]

It's never a bad idea to reduce our intake of red meat, but there are a few things one should understand about CJD. IF proper methods of butchering are in place, contamination is unlikely. Meat on the bone (oxtail, shanks, etc) should be avoided. Ground meats should be avoided (frankly I avoid ALL ground meat) because you just can't be sure what's in there....I feel the same about hot dogs. Steaks are pretty much "safe" - so grinding your own from that sort of meat would also be "safe". Organ meats are to be avoided, such as sweatbreads, liver, kidney and of course brains. There appears to be a long incubation period for CJD and it also doesn't appear to surface in everyone who might've been exposed - it is an horrific disease, but there were only 100 or so cases in the UK total...considering the population of the UK that's not very many cases. (We moved to the UK just as CJD was hitting the press so I feel like I've read a zillion articles on it!) I know some people could never give up their meat so that's why I've posted this, not because I advocate eating red meat.

[KValley]

Just to clarify, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is the livestock form of so-called mad cow; the human form is vCJD or Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. Nearly 100 confirmed deaths from vCDJ have been confirmed in Europe since 1995; no case of vCJD have been found in the US.

Hoof and Mouth disease is something else entirely and has not shown to be at all harmful to humans, but of course devastating to livestock. There are more than 600 confirmed cases of hoof and mouth in the UK.

The sheep in VT MAY have been contaminated with BSE. Slaughtering these animals is tragically the only way to find out as the brain tissue must be tested.

It's crazy that I know this, as I work in international higher education, not agriculture, but it has impacted my field. There is a debate amongst colleagues now as to the ramifications and wisdom of sending US students to the UK this summer to conduct research and study at farms and institutions in the countryside, where they may encounter livestock infected with hoof and mouth and unwittingly bring that infection back with them to the US. Then there is my husband, who is spending several weeks in France and Germany this summer- I've made him promise not to eat any beef!!

[Julia1Pin]

So can I eat my beef and lamb or not?

[bluebird]

It's really unfortunate that we will not have an answer for at least three years as to whether these Vermont sheep have been contaminated. There should really be a quicker more efficient way of coming up with an answer. This is truly a global problem!

[Leslie w]

I'm a little confused. Maybe you bovine experts can help me. Why is steak ok to eat? Is it because there's no chance of any organ meat contaminating it? I could understand not eating ground beef but why is meat on the bone bad? Also I heard that lamb should not be a concern because it's strictly a beef problem. Has anyone else heard that?

They're saying people vulnerable to this disease are young adults, although they don't say why. I had watched that on a news show. It annoyed me because there were so many unanswered questions. I thought either this is really lousy journalism or they just don't have enough answers, which is also scary.

My main concern is not importing cattle but the feed. How are they going to monitor that? How can we be sure ranchers aren't going to give cattle meat byproducts?

[sneezles]

IMHO it is mostly BAD journalism! Media Hype! Not reporting all the information!
Most ranchers (at least here in Texas) do not give their cattle feed. Ours graze on the grasses that grow in the field and the hay that we grow in two other pastures, Plus mineral supplements and mineral licks. They don't get meat by-products. To give them additional feed is simply not cost effective. We are waiting for more information on the sheep from Vermont. Seems mighty strange that sheep in the US have developed this bovine disease when the sheep in the UK (and there are a lot of sheep in the UK) have not.

[This message has been edited by sneezles (edited 03-26-2001).]

[Emdg]

I can second Sneezles report on cattle feed. We live on a cattle ranch, and all cattle are grazed only. The ranchers try to avoid hay feeding due to the expense, let alone meat by-products.

[Kristilyn1]

The sheep in Vermont--they are actually MUCH more likely to have scrapie--a common disease in sheep everywhere. They are not believed to have Mad Cow--but possibly a disease that is similar. Since Mad Cow cannot be spread by consuming milk products--which these sheep were used for--they really are not dangerous other than the "what if's" of having them around. Mad Cow is spread by using feed that is made from the brains/parts of infected cattle. Which has been banned in the United States since this whole thing started. Eating the most common cuts of meat is not a way to get Mad Cow. I guess ground beef could be a problem--assuming that the person that ground it was throwing in bits of brain and other parts of the cow.

While I worry about the food we eat--I think there would have to be some sort of knowledge beforehand by a very unethical person to use the banned feed, knowing what it could cause. To me, imho--this person would have to be just as crazy as someone would be to release a chemical agent into our air or water supply. COULD it happen? Sure--but I'm going to have to go on faith and hope not.

Kristi

[Leanne]

OK - I have another question - Have they ever had a case of mad cow outside of the UK? My DH & I travel overseas alot (3-4 times a year) & we never even think about not eating red meat. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/eek.gif
Also - what about countries like South America - do they still import meat from Europe, or use meat products in their feed?

[SusanT]

I heard an interview of an official from the Centers for Disease control about Mad Cow disease. He said that it's beef products (sausage, low-grade hamburger meat, hot dogs) that transmit the disease to humans. The infectious part of the animal is the brain and spinal cord which is sometimes used in beef products. You shouldn't be able to get it from a steak or lamb chop.

[KValley]

Just about all you could ever want to know about BSE and vCDJ (probably more than you want to know) can be found at www.mad-cow.org (http://www.mad-cow.org)

I just found this website and have only skimmed the contents,so I make no claims about the quality or veracity of content, but it seems to be a collection of articles from around the world on research and current events surrounding BSE.


Most EU countries have banned imports of beef from the UK and France. THe US has temporarily banned ALL imports of animals and animal products from the European Union. EU beef has been banned in the US for several years, since the first reported outbreak of BSE. The animals in question (cattle in Texas, sheep in VT) were imported before this ban.

This new ban includes beef from Argentina, but this is from fear of hoof and mouth contamination, NOT BSE.

IMHO, this banning is also highly political- banning imports certainly benefits US farmers. Before the ban, imports of pigs and cattle to the US was a muli-billion dollar enterprise. THis just astounds me, as friends of ours struggle to maintain their hog business, yet we import pigs fromm Italy, Denmark, beef from all over.

Economics, baby!

Oh, reported # of cases of BSE in EUrope so far in 2001:

Belgium 2
Denmark 1
France 1 (162 in 2000)
Germany 6
Italy 1
Spain 5
UK 0 (1277 in 2000, 8149 in 1996, 14562 in 1995)

I just won't even touch the question of whether or not it's safe to eat beef or any other livestock- imported or not. I'm in no way qualified- I think it's a decision we all must research and determine for ourselves.

MY personal choice will be to not eat beef, pork, or lamb while in Europe. I will continue to eat these meats here in the US- as rarely as we do anyway, I think the risk is miniscule at the moment.


[This message has been edited by KValley (edited 03-27-2001).]

[Leslie w]

Well with the information I've seen experts on the disease say it's ok to eat steak and other expensive cuts of beef. So why don't they report that on the news? I have been watching this carefully and not one reporter has said it's only in ground beef, brains, etc. They just say in general avoid red meat. Everyone I've talked to said they have stopped buying beef. This is going to ruin an industry like it did in Europe.

[mandarin2j]

I have to confess, I regularly listen to public radio and read my local daily newspaper, but I haven't seen or heard anyone state that it's unsafe to eat U.S. produced meat. I heard about the sheep seized on the east coast, but from what I remember, they were seized last summer, before the current fears over European animal products due to the European outbreak of foot and mouth disease hit. I also read about the foot and mouth outbreak in Argentina, but from what I read, it's more of a relapse than anything else. Argentinian beef only recently became certified as foot and mouth free, and now there have been a few new cases reported. The timing is unfortunate, given the European outbreak and all, but if they are linked, it is in public perception, not in media reports.

What sorts of media outlets are recommending that U.S. consumers should avoid red meat? I just haven't seen the kind of media hysteria over U.S. animal products that everyone else seems to have witnessed.