041159 Minnesota's Meat Supply Declared Safe

Minneapolis, MN - Leaders of Minnesota's beef industry said the meat supply is safe after federal officials announced that a second case of mad cow disease might have turned up in the United States.

Ron Eustice, executive director of the Minnesota Beef Council, sought to put the announcement in perspective. He noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture just said tests on one cow at an undisclosed location were inconclusive, and that more testing was required.

It will take four to seven days to determine if the animal actually had the brain disease formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, USDA officials said.

In an earlier scare this summer, Eustice noted, two cows that first tested inconclusively were later found to be free of mad cow disease.

"This is not a time for alarm. ... It is also important for consumers to know that the meat from this animal did not enter the food chain," Eustice said.

Eustice pointed out that the federal government has imposed extensive safety measures meant to keep cows with the disease out of the food supply, including expanded testing and a ban on feeding cows tissues that can harbor the disease, such as brains and spinal cords. The government has set a target of testing 268,500 cattle nationwide per year, and Minnesota's share of that goal is 9,586.

"The science is working," said Dennis Swan, who raises 1,000 to 1,200 head of cattle a year near Balaton and serves as chairman of the Minnesota Beef Council.

Given that more than 113,000 cows across the country have been tested to date, it's not surprising that a few results would initially come back inconclusive, Eustice said.

Live cattle prices fell on the livestock markets, but Swan recalled that the markets quickly recovered after the two inconclusive cases in July turned out to be free of BSE.

Still, even temporary price drops are hard on farmers who are barely breaking even, said Steve Brake, president of the Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association.

"It's certainly going to affect our business dramatically in the short term," said Brake, whose feedlot near Wilmont produces 6,000 to 7,000 head a year.

Only one case of mad cow disease has ever been confirmed in the United States, a case that surfaced 11 months ago in a Canadian-born cow. Eustice said that might not be the end of it, but he doesn't expect many more cases.

"We fully expect that there could be another case or two or three, but I do not expect to see many more than that," he said.

Minnesota's 29,000 beef and dairy producers have done an excellent job of complying with the federal safety rules, Eustice said.

"Their livelihood depends on providing the safest beef in the world," he said. "The beef that we consume in our homes is the same beef that consumers throughout the United States and the world are consuming. Therefore we want to take every precaution that the beef we are producing is entirely safe."

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