Beef recalled under mad cow rules

[__Kratos__]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Beef banned under mad cow disease rules was shipped to wholesalers in a half-dozen states and is now being recalled by a Wisconsin beef plant.

The 1,856 pounds of beef came from a Canadian cow. Inspectors there determined the cow was eligible for shipment to the United States, but a Canadian audit two weeks later said the cow was too old to be allowed inside the U.S.

"There is a minimal chance, given the age of the animal and the health of the animal, that there was any risk whatsoever" to people, Steven Cohen, spokesman for the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said Monday.

The U.S. restricts shipments to younger animals because infection levels from mad cow disease are believed to rise with age. The cutoff is 30 months of age.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is investigating and has suspended the veterinarian who certified the cow, said Francine Lord, import-export manager for the agency's animal health division. She said the agency finished its audit last week and notified U.S. officials Thursday.

The Agriculture Department said Canadian officials verified the cow's age on Friday.

Green Bay Dressed Beef of Green Bay, Wisconsin, processed the cow on August 4 and distributed the meat to wholesalers in Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The department and the company are trying to find out how much beef wound up in retail stores, Cohen said.

The department issued code numbers for recalled cases of beef sent to distributors, but it was unknown whether beef that reached the retail level would have carried the same numbers.

Consumer groups have criticized the government for not revealing the names of retail stores involved in food recalls.

"When it comes to a case like this, the retailer is never disclosed -- how are you ever going to know whether your chuck roast was involved in this recall or not?" asked Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union. "The consumer has absolutely no way of knowing."

The recall is for cuts of meat that could contain backbone, because the cow's backbone was not removed. Those cuts include neck bone, short loin and bone-in chuck.

The U.S. requires the removal of backbone and nerve parts -- which can carry mad cow disease -- when older cows are slaughtered. The at-risk tissues are removed from cows older than 30 months.

U.S. and Canadian officials said the cow in question wasn't the only problem in a shipment of 35 cows from Ontario: Also in that shipment were eight pregnant cows, which the U.S. also prohibits. The cows were processed for distribution but their calves were destroyed, the Agriculture Department said.

Those cows are part of the Canadian investigation, Lord said.

The U.S. closed its borders to Canadian cattle in May 2003, when Canada discovered its first case of mad cow disease. The government allowed Canadian imports to resume last July after a court battle with a group of western ranchers suing to keep the border closed.

Canada subsequently found two more cases of mad cow disease. The U.S. also found two cases, one in a cow that had been imported from Canada.

Since the border reopened, 40,390 Canadian cows have crossed the border.

Mad cow disease is the common name for a brain-wasting ailment called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. In humans, eating meat contaminated with BSE has been linked to about 150 deaths from a rare but fatal degenerative disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Source

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There's a pretty good chance I ate some of that beef since the beginning of the month... Green Bay is pretty close to where I live. However... If I did get mad cow's disease... might explain some things.

Borders just opened not that long ago and Canadians are already trying to abuse the system... lets close back down the borders for a couple months and then see if they want to keep sending us bad meat!

[jeceris]

kratos, shut your steaming beef hole!!!

i am tired of americans blaming us for bad beef. don't buy it then, but people in glass slaughterhouses.......if you know what i mean.

i am positive there have been more cases of mad cow disease in your country than you will ever know.

i was stunned to find out that your government had even admitted that last one.

if i was american, i'd be more afraid to eat american beef that any other countries, due to the inspection process the beef had to go through.

the cow you ate, was a little older than the recomendation, but with NO signs of mad cow, so ease up and stuff some more beef down your immense gob.

now..... wanna discuss softwood lumber and how the americans are out to screw canada.

[Dando Kast]

..and why would you base the mistake on ONE veterinarian on the whole country?

The recall is for cuts of meat that could contain backbone, because the cow's backbone was not removed. Those cuts include neck bone, short loin and bone-in chuck.

The U.S. requires the removal of backbone and nerve parts -- which can carry mad cow disease -- when older cows are slaughtered. The at-risk tissues are removed from cows older than 30 months.

Seems the AMERICAN slaughter house didn't follow rules either....

Canada is not a scape goat! damn americans try to blame everything on us....

Edited August 23, 2005 by Black Ops

[bboy]

And I'm sick of Canadians telling us how bad our country is. You act like you know everything about what's going on here. But all you get is what the left leaning media wants you to hear. Keep to yourselves!

[Subtemperate]

This has gone on far enough... and is only becoming a flame war. I will close this thread, as nothing can come of this conversation at all.

[BurnSide]

I would like to add that this forum is NOT the place for anyone to vent anti-canadian, anti-american etc sentiments.

Blatantly posting topics designed to ridicule or attack will NOT be tolerated, and neither will any posts of the like. Further topics/posts on this nature will result in vacations away from the site.