http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...st/a37014_2003
dec28


So, what beef should I buy for the freezer?
I am in boston..



INCLUDED ARTICLE BELOW...




Cow's Meat Reached Retailers in Eight States
Mon Dec 29, 8:49 AM ET Add Top Stories - washingtonpost.com to My Yahoo!


By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer

SEATTLE, Dec. 28 -- Recalled meat from a Washington state dairy cow infected
with mad cow disease has been distributed in eight western states and the U.S.
territory of Guam, federal officials said Sunday


In the strongest indication so far that significant amounts of the meat have
been eaten, about 100 consumers have called U.S. Department of Agriculture
(news - web sites) hotlines to say they have consumed the recalled meat and are
worried about their health.


Most of the calls came from people living in Oregon and Washington state, said
Daniel Puzo, a USDA spokesman. Consumers in the region have also told at least
two major grocery chains that they have eaten recalled beef, most of it in the
form of hamburger.


"The calls started coming on the 24th of December, after the recall was
announced, and they are still coming in," Puzo said.


Consumers apparently have been able to figure out if they and their families ate
the recalled beef because grocery store recalls have been quite precise. They
have referred to specific grades of lean ground beef on sale in specific stores
for about nine days before Christmas.


Callers to the USDA hotlines have been assured that the recalled meat is safe to
eat, Puzo said, and that the federal recall resulted from an abundance of
caution, rather than any known health threat.


Worried consumers have also been told that there is no scientific evidence
showing that people can contract the human variant of mad cow disease when beef
has been slaughtered in a way that strips brain and spinal cord tissue away from
muscle. The USDA said the infected dairy cow was slaughtered in this way.


The geographical range of worried calls, however, seems likely to expand after
Sunday's announcement that the distribution of the recalled beef has moved well
beyond the four states previously mentioned by the USDA.


The meat also went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam in the western
Pacific, said Kenneth Petersen, a veterinarian with the USDA's Food Safety and
Inspection Service. Previously, officials had said most of the beef, having been
distributed by two meat plants in the Portland, Ore., area, was shipped
primarily to stores in Oregon and Washington, with smaller amounts to California
and Nevada.


The amount of recalled beef, however, has not expanded. The recall is confined
to about 10,000 pounds of meat, most of which was ground into hamburger at
Interstate Meat Distributors in Clackamas, Ore.


The meat comes from the one cow that tested positive for mad cow disease, as
well as from 19 other dairy cows that were slaughtered with the infected cow on
Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash.


U.S. officials said Sunday they had made some progress in clarifying the origin
of the infected dairy cow, which an ear tag shows came from Alberta, Canada,
where another case of mad cow disease was discovered in May.


The dairy cow, a Holstein, was part of a herd of 74 dairy cows imported in
August 2001, officials have said. All those cows were eventually sold later that
year to the Sunny Dene Ranch, in Mabton, Wash. It was from that 4,000-cow dairy
farm, now under quarantine, that the infected cow and the 19 others were sent
for slaughter in Moses Lake.


When U.S. officials announced Saturday the probable Alberta origin of the
infected animal, there was a dispute between U.S. and Canadian officials about
the age of the animal identified by the ear tag. Canadian records showed it was
61/2 years old, while U.S. records suggested it was about two years younger.


The discrepancy led Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer with the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency, to say that there is "no definitive evidence" that the
infected cow came from Canada.


Some of that confusion has been sorted out, said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy
administrator and chief veterinary officer for the USDA.


Based on information provided by the farm manager at the Sunny Dene Ranch,
DeHaven said, it appears the infected animal was an older milk cow and its birth
date fits Canadian records.


DeHaven said definitive identification of the herd where the infected cow was
born will await the results of DNA testing, due this week. He said officials are
testing at least one Canadian cow born to the infected milk cow before it was
exported to the United States. They also are testing frozen semen from the
Canadian bull that sired the infected cow. In addition, two calves born to the
infected animal in Washington state have been quarantined and are being tested.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by misshapen
proteins, which cannot be removed from meat by cooking or irradiation.

The animal disease is associated with a fatal brain-wasting syndrome in humans
called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). It gives the brain
a spongelike appearance, there is no cure, and 154 people have died from it,
mostly in Britain.

"MikeT" > wrote in message
news:xE%Hb.689569$Tr4.1720133@attbi_s03...
>
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...shpost/a37014_
2003
> dec28
>
>
> So, what beef should I buy for the freezer?
> I am in boston..
>

According to the article, the bulk of the meat was made into hamburger.
Older animals don't make for tender steaks.
You might want to buy from a local butcher that buys local beef, or make a
deal with a local farmer and have the butcher pick it up. Be sure the farmer
is okay with doing the kill on his property.

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
news
> Trolling.
>
> -sw
Huh???

Well, the meat is fine as it there is no clinical evidence that it can
be passed on except by the consumption of the brain or spinal cord, so
yer pretty safe. I guess our cow here (Alberta) was deemed unsafe for
human consumption and not distributed, so there was certainly less to
worry about here.


C
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:55:09 GMT, "MikeT"
> wrote:

>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...st/a37014_2003
>dec28
>
>
>So, what beef should I buy for the freezer?
>I am in boston..
>
>
>
>INCLUDED ARTICLE BELOW...
>
>
>
>
>Cow's Meat Reached Retailers in Eight States
>Mon Dec 29, 8:49 AM ET Add Top Stories - washingtonpost.com to My Yahoo!
>
>
>By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer
>
>SEATTLE, Dec. 28 -- Recalled meat from a Washington state dairy cow infected
>with mad cow disease has been distributed in eight western states and the U.S.
>territory of Guam, federal officials said Sunday
>
>
>In the strongest indication so far that significant amounts of the meat have
>been eaten, about 100 consumers have called U.S. Department of Agriculture
>(news - web sites) hotlines to say they have consumed the recalled meat and are
>worried about their health.
>
>
>Most of the calls came from people living in Oregon and Washington state, said
>Daniel Puzo, a USDA spokesman. Consumers in the region have also told at least
>two major grocery chains that they have eaten recalled beef, most of it in the
>form of hamburger.
>
>
>"The calls started coming on the 24th of December, after the recall was
>announced, and they are still coming in," Puzo said.
>
>
>Consumers apparently have been able to figure out if they and their families ate
>the recalled beef because grocery store recalls have been quite precise. They
>have referred to specific grades of lean ground beef on sale in specific stores
>for about nine days before Christmas.
>
>
>Callers to the USDA hotlines have been assured that the recalled meat is safe to
>eat, Puzo said, and that the federal recall resulted from an abundance of
>caution, rather than any known health threat.
>
>
>Worried consumers have also been told that there is no scientific evidence
>showing that people can contract the human variant of mad cow disease when beef
>has been slaughtered in a way that strips brain and spinal cord tissue away from
>muscle. The USDA said the infected dairy cow was slaughtered in this way.
>
>
>The geographical range of worried calls, however, seems likely to expand after
>Sunday's announcement that the distribution of the recalled beef has moved well
>beyond the four states previously mentioned by the USDA.
>
>
>The meat also went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam in the western
>Pacific, said Kenneth Petersen, a veterinarian with the USDA's Food Safety and
>Inspection Service. Previously, officials had said most of the beef, having been
>distributed by two meat plants in the Portland, Ore., area, was shipped
>primarily to stores in Oregon and Washington, with smaller amounts to California
>and Nevada.
>
>
>The amount of recalled beef, however, has not expanded. The recall is confined
>to about 10,000 pounds of meat, most of which was ground into hamburger at
>Interstate Meat Distributors in Clackamas, Ore.
>
>
>The meat comes from the one cow that tested positive for mad cow disease, as
>well as from 19 other dairy cows that were slaughtered with the infected cow on
>Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash.
>
>
>U.S. officials said Sunday they had made some progress in clarifying the origin
>of the infected dairy cow, which an ear tag shows came from Alberta, Canada,
>where another case of mad cow disease was discovered in May.
>
>
>The dairy cow, a Holstein, was part of a herd of 74 dairy cows imported in
>August 2001, officials have said. All those cows were eventually sold later that
>year to the Sunny Dene Ranch, in Mabton, Wash. It was from that 4,000-cow dairy
>farm, now under quarantine, that the infected cow and the 19 others were sent
>for slaughter in Moses Lake.
>
>
>When U.S. officials announced Saturday the probable Alberta origin of the
>infected animal, there was a dispute between U.S. and Canadian officials about
>the age of the animal identified by the ear tag. Canadian records showed it was
>61/2 years old, while U.S. records suggested it was about two years younger.
>
>
>The discrepancy led Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer with the Canadian Food
>Inspection Agency, to say that there is "no definitive evidence" that the
>infected cow came from Canada.
>
>
>Some of that confusion has been sorted out, said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy
>administrator and chief veterinary officer for the USDA.
>
>
>Based on information provided by the farm manager at the Sunny Dene Ranch,
>DeHaven said, it appears the infected animal was an older milk cow and its birth
>date fits Canadian records.
>
>
>DeHaven said definitive identification of the herd where the infected cow was
>born will await the results of DNA testing, due this week. He said officials are
>testing at least one Canadian cow born to the infected milk cow before it was
>exported to the United States. They also are testing frozen semen from the
>Canadian bull that sired the infected cow. In addition, two calves born to the
>infected animal in Washington state have been quarantined and are being tested.
>
>Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by misshapen
>proteins, which cannot be removed from meat by cooking or irradiation.
>
>The animal disease is associated with a fatal brain-wasting syndrome in humans
>called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). It gives the brain
>a spongelike appearance, there is no cure, and 154 people have died from it,
>mostly in Britain.
>
>
>
>
>

"doyle" wrote in message ...
>
> "Steve Wertz" wrote in message
> news
> > Trolling.
> >
> > -sw
> Huh???
>


Double "Huh???"

actually, no. Not trolling.
I have been an occasional contributor and lurker for years.
More often to abf and less often to afb.
This is for discussion and not binary so it came here.

I have been watching the beef prices rathet up over the past few months.
I wonder how long they suspected this - you can't tell me a farmer doesn't know
his herd.

I also noticed that on yahoo where this article originated the discussion is
growing quite rapidly.

The folks who read this group /usually/ tend to have more of a clue.

O'course from the outside this would look like a troll.
To make it truly trollworthy I should have had some incendiary remarks and not
a simple quoted article and question for suggestions on where to buy safe beef.

-miket

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
news
> Trolling.
>
> -sw

Not likely, Steve. Considering that this group, out of all on Usenet,
should be the most likely to make the mad cow story a point of discussion
(not to mention on topic). There seems to be a lot more negativity toward
the news stories about mad cow disease than I would expect from this group.

I'm concerned enough, and fed up with retail beef prices, that I'm ready to
take my business locally for meats, mad cow or not.

I'd think this kinda thing would make all of us squirm a lot more than a
vegan troll, don't you?

Jon E

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 14:47:17 GMT, "Jon Endres, PE"
> t> wrote:
>
> >I'd think this kinda thing would make all of us squirm a lot more than a
> >vegan troll, don't you?
>
> I see these types of post in the *.general groups all the time
> Usually they're posted by someone who constantly morphes their address
> to avoid killfiles, and never provides any commentary or followup. At
> least it wasn't crossposted.
>
> So call me cynical. Bah Humbug.
>
> Not to mention Mad Cow doesn't really have anything to do with BBQ'ing
> except for the price of beef, possibly. Which wasn't what the article
> was about.
>
> Anybody here avoiding whole cuts of beef because they're afraid of Mad
> Cow?
>


I'm avoiding them cuz I'm ascared of the price!

Jack

"Steve Wertz" wrote in message ...
....
>
> So call me cynical. Bah Humbug.
>
> Not to mention Mad Cow doesn't really have anything to do with BBQ'ing
> except for the price of beef, possibly. Which wasn't what the article
> was about.
>
> Anybody here avoiding whole cuts of beef because they're afraid of Mad
> Cow?
>
> -sw

Well Mr..cynic -

As more details come out it appears that this cow was infected before they
stopped Canadian beef imports. Years later it manifested. The beef also may have
entered mainstream markets.

We are not all as lucky as you and TedNugent to be able to bring home whole
animals.

I must settle for what I can get at Stop&Shop and Shaws.
There are no local butchers or farmers AFAIK.
If you, or anyone bored enough to read this, know differently PLEASE let me
know!! (said I was in Boston, actually 20mi south and east of Boston.)

The PRIONS that cause madcow are found in brain and spinal cord tissue.
That means any cut of beef that contains or comes into contact with brain or
spinal cord may be suspect.

Exactly what cut of beef do Porterhouse steaks come from?
Is there a remote chance that while cutting a porterhouse the sawblade could
cross contaminate some spinal cord into some other cut of beef?

That bothers me since porterhouse is one of my faves - for grilling.
And again, AFAIK, they don't se different meat saws for spine vs. other bones.


Now, if you only cook brisket and take it from a whole animal using a clean
knife you may be safe. These PRIONS are a new discovery. They don't even know
how to classify them. They are basically protein strings. Hmmm... the beef we
eat is protein too. Just a different form. I sure hope the prions don't or have
not mutated to the point where they can bounce along happily in muscle tissue.



Now, to inject some humor here..

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay
and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more
than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.
Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass
(green
leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended
daily allowance of vegetable slop.

-miket

Jack Schidt® wrote:
> "Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 14:47:17 GMT, "Jon Endres, PE"
>> t> wrote:
>>
>>> I'd think this kinda thing would make all of us squirm a lot more
>>> than a vegan troll, don't you?
>>
>> I see these types of post in the *.general groups all the time
>> Usually they're posted by someone who constantly morphes their
>> address to avoid killfiles, and never provides any commentary or
>> followup. At least it wasn't crossposted.
>>
>> So call me cynical. Bah Humbug.
>>
>> Not to mention Mad Cow doesn't really have anything to do with
>> BBQ'ing except for the price of beef, possibly. Which wasn't what
>> the article was about.
>>
>> Anybody here avoiding whole cuts of beef because they're afraid of
>> Mad Cow?
>>
>
>
> I'm avoiding them cuz I'm ascared of the price!
>
> Jack

Well, friend Jack, I'm expecting the price of brisket to come down a good
bit (maybe stupid optimism) since the timid and fearful among us will eschew
<g> beef altogether.
If the newspapers are even close to right, brisket, being so far from any
bovine nerve systems, are "safe."
Me? I figure I'm gonna die of a dose of 9mm in the brainpan anyhow, so I
might as well go out happy, *chewing* some well-cooked brisket...if the
price comes down.
Jack Curry

I think that I might have Mad cow disease! My speech is slurred and I can't
walk straight and I can't remember where I put my brewski!!






"Scodian Milsovnobv" > wrote in message
...
> Well, the meat is fine as it there is no clinical evidence that it can
> be passed on except by the consumption of the brain or spinal cord, so
> yer pretty safe. I guess our cow here (Alberta) was deemed unsafe for
> human consumption and not distributed, so there was certainly less to
> worry about here.
>
>
> C
> On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:55:09 GMT, "MikeT"
> > wrote:
>
>
>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ashpost/a37014
_2003
> >dec28
> >
> >
> >So, what beef should I buy for the freezer?
> >I am in boston..
> >
> >
> >
> >INCLUDED ARTICLE BELOW...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Cow's Meat Reached Retailers in Eight States
> >Mon Dec 29, 8:49 AM ET Add Top Stories - washingtonpost.com to My Yahoo!
> >
> >
> >By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer
> >
> >SEATTLE, Dec. 28 -- Recalled meat from a Washington state dairy cow
infected
> >with mad cow disease has been distributed in eight western states and the
U.S.
> >territory of Guam, federal officials said Sunday
> >
> >
> >In the strongest indication so far that significant amounts of the meat
have
> >been eaten, about 100 consumers have called U.S. Department of
Agriculture
> >(news - web sites) hotlines to say they have consumed the recalled meat
and are
> >worried about their health.
> >
> >
> >Most of the calls came from people living in Oregon and Washington state,
said
> >Daniel Puzo, a USDA spokesman. Consumers in the region have also told at
least
> >two major grocery chains that they have eaten recalled beef, most of it
in the
> >form of hamburger.
> >
> >
> >"The calls started coming on the 24th of December, after the recall was
> >announced, and they are still coming in," Puzo said.
> >
> >
> >Consumers apparently have been able to figure out if they and their
families ate
> >the recalled beef because grocery store recalls have been quite precise.
They
> >have referred to specific grades of lean ground beef on sale in specific
stores
> >for about nine days before Christmas.
> >
> >
> >Callers to the USDA hotlines have been assured that the recalled meat is
safe to
> >eat, Puzo said, and that the federal recall resulted from an abundance of
> >caution, rather than any known health threat.
> >
> >
> >Worried consumers have also been told that there is no scientific
evidence
> >showing that people can contract the human variant of mad cow disease
when beef
> >has been slaughtered in a way that strips brain and spinal cord tissue
away from
> >muscle. The USDA said the infected dairy cow was slaughtered in this way.
> >
> >
> >The geographical range of worried calls, however, seems likely to expand
after
> >Sunday's announcement that the distribution of the recalled beef has
moved well
> >beyond the four states previously mentioned by the USDA.
> >
> >
> >The meat also went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam in the
western
> >Pacific, said Kenneth Petersen, a veterinarian with the USDA's Food
Safety and
> >Inspection Service. Previously, officials had said most of the beef,
having been
> >distributed by two meat plants in the Portland, Ore., area, was shipped
> >primarily to stores in Oregon and Washington, with smaller amounts to
California
> >and Nevada.
> >
> >
> >The amount of recalled beef, however, has not expanded. The recall is
confined
> >to about 10,000 pounds of meat, most of which was ground into hamburger
at
> >Interstate Meat Distributors in Clackamas, Ore.
> >
> >
> >The meat comes from the one cow that tested positive for mad cow disease,
as
> >well as from 19 other dairy cows that were slaughtered with the infected
cow on
> >Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash.
> >
> >
> >U.S. officials said Sunday they had made some progress in clarifying the
origin
> >of the infected dairy cow, which an ear tag shows came from Alberta,
Canada,
> >where another case of mad cow disease was discovered in May.
> >
> >
> >The dairy cow, a Holstein, was part of a herd of 74 dairy cows imported
in
> >August 2001, officials have said. All those cows were eventually sold
later that
> >year to the Sunny Dene Ranch, in Mabton, Wash. It was from that 4,000-cow
dairy
> >farm, now under quarantine, that the infected cow and the 19 others were
sent
> >for slaughter in Moses Lake.
> >
> >
> >When U.S. officials announced Saturday the probable Alberta origin of the
> >infected animal, there was a dispute between U.S. and Canadian officials
about
> >the age of the animal identified by the ear tag. Canadian records showed
it was
> >61/2 years old, while U.S. records suggested it was about two years
younger.
> >
> >
> >The discrepancy led Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer with the
Canadian Food
> >Inspection Agency, to say that there is "no definitive evidence" that the
> >infected cow came from Canada.
> >
> >
> >Some of that confusion has been sorted out, said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy
> >administrator and chief veterinary officer for the USDA.
> >
> >
> >Based on information provided by the farm manager at the Sunny Dene
Ranch,
> >DeHaven said, it appears the infected animal was an older milk cow and
its birth
> >date fits Canadian records.
> >
> >
> >DeHaven said definitive identification of the herd where the infected cow
was
> >born will await the results of DNA testing, due this week. He said
officials are
> >testing at least one Canadian cow born to the infected milk cow before it
was
> >exported to the United States. They also are testing frozen semen from
the
> >Canadian bull that sired the infected cow. In addition, two calves born
to the
> >infected animal in Washington state have been quarantined and are being
tested.
> >
> >Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by
misshapen
> >proteins, which cannot be removed from meat by cooking or irradiation.
> >
> >The animal disease is associated with a fatal brain-wasting syndrome in
humans
> >called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). It gives the
brain
> >a spongelike appearance, there is no cure, and 154 people have died from
it,
> >mostly in Britain.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

"Jack Curry" <Jack-Curry > wrote in message
news:Y_mIb.160175>

Me? I figure I'm gonna die of a dose of 9mm in the brainpan anyhow, so I
> might as well go out happy, *chewing* some well-cooked brisket...if the
> price comes down.
> Jack Curry

So - here's my take on this whole mad cow thing - speaking as a Brit, who
lived through the original deal (whilst eating copious quantities of beef),
who knows a little bit about meat, etc, etc...... (but who could also be
totally wrong)


1) BSE can only ever infect animals that have been fed ground up parts of
other animals. i.e. el cheapo beef - normally carcasses of old dairy cows
ground up for burgers, pies anf other processed meat products etc...

2) Good quality, grass fed steer beef cannot ever contract BSE. The prion
infection agent simply is not present in any natural cattle food (i.e.
grass).

3) Don't eat meat that you do not know the provenance of.

4) This basically means, only buy good quality, grass (or maybe in the US,
corn fed) fed steer beef. If you think you are getting cow meat of unknown
provenance then pass on it.

5) Organic beef is better as there cannot be any infectious agents in the
food.

6) Good quality and/or organic beef tastes better anyway.

7) Don't buy meat simply because it's cheap. Buy quality meat only.

8) Make friends with your butcher. Find out where the beef you buy comes
from.

9) This may be difficult int he USA because price has become the all
conquering driver.

10) Buy quality. Eat quality.

11) Errr.......I need another beer.

12) BSE is bullshit. If your beef suppliers don't try to pervert nature for
the sake fo a few cents, there is no danger.

13) You is what you eats.






>
>
>