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Mad cow meat sent to 42 additional locales
(Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Steve Mitchell, UPI, 12/29/03:
WASHINGTON -- An Oregon woman said Monday she unwittingly
consumed some of the recalled beef that may have contained meat from the
mad cow
detected in Washington earlier this month, as federal officials
announced the questionable meat had been sent to 42 more facilities than
previously announced.
In addition, eight more Canadian cows apparently came into the United
States in 2001 with the 74 that contained the cow in Mabton, Wash., that
tested positive for mad
cow on Dec. 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a news
briefing Monday.
"The additional eight (cows) came on a subsequent shipment," USDA's
chief veterinary officer Ron DeHaven said.
"We don't know at this point where those animals are," DeHaven said.
"It's our understanding all of them did come into the state of
Washington," he said, adding that
authorities are currently trying to locate their whereabouts.
The woman, who lives in Williams, Ore., told United Press International
the meat was purchased and consumed before the mad cow case or the
recall was announced.
She declined to give her name because her family has business contacts
with many ranchers but said she purchased the meat in Murphy, Ore., on
Dec. 20 and she and
her husband ate it the next day. The mad cow case was not announced
until Dec. 23 and the recall was not initiated until Dec. 24.
The USDA recalled 10,000 pounds of beef that may have contained meat
from the Holstein cow in Mabton. The agency said Sunday the meat went to
Guam and eight
states -- California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho
and Montana.
Officials expanded the distribution on Monday to say it had reached 42
additional facilities.
The vast majority of the additional product -- at least 80 percent --
was distributed to the states of Oregon and Washington, said Kenneth
Petersen of USDA's Food Safety
and Inspection Service.
USDA officials said the recall was initiated out of an abundance of
caution and the meat probably did not pose a risk to consumers because
the most infectious parts of the
animal -- the brain, spinal cord and lower intestines -- had been
removed.
The watchdog group Public Citizen, however, warns consumers to avoid
certain cuts of meat because they can contain nervous tissue, such as
the brain and spinal cord.
These cuts of meat include beef cheeks, neck bones, T-bone steaks and
any meat that comes from the head or spinal column.
Public Citizen also advises consumers to avoid ground beef, hog dogs,
salami and bologna because they are sometimes made from meat processed
by advanced meat
recovery machines that can contaminate the meat with nervous tissue.
USDA's Petersen said AMR machines were not used to process any of the
recalled beef.
Dalton Hobbs, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, told
UPI, "There's a good likelihood that people have consumed some of this
recalled product"
because much of the meat was turned into ground meat, which is typically
consumed shortly after purchasing. The infected cow was slaughtered on
Dec. 9 and
distributed to commercial establishments a few days after that.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture has received calls from consumers
worried about whether they consumed some of the recalled beef. But Hobbs
said his
department cannot confirm whether the consumed beef was subject to the
recall because the USDA has not provided state officials with a list of
retailers or products
involved.
The recall came from the federal level and is being "managed and
overseen by the USDA," Hobbs said. "We wouldn't really have any role in
that unless asked by the
USDA to assist and we have not been asked by them to assist," he said.
So far, the large supermarket chains of Albertson's, Safeway, WinCo and
Fred Meyer are known to have received some of the recalled beef, Hobbs
said. Some smaller
stores, so-called "mom and pop shops," also may have received the beef,
he said.
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