Sisters calm about mad cow scare

Sisters residents are still eating beef, despite a mad cow scare in the U.S. photo by Kathryn Godsiff

As the investigation into the origins of America's first case of mad cow disease continues, folks in Sisters are still buying meat and dining on steaks.

"Sales were up 25 percent over last Christmas," said Ron Bliven, meat department manager at Ray's Food Place in Sisters.

He said his store purchases meat through Western Boxed Meats, a distributor who deals with a processor in Iowa called Iowa Beef Packers. The meat comes from the Midwest and is branded Certified Angus.

Branded beef animals are generally more closely monitored from pasture to plate than are their unbranded counterparts.

Curtis Pohl, president of Western Boxed Meats, said in a letter to customers that "it is important that we keep things in perspective. One case of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Enchephalopathy) does not make a crisis in our industry. Our customers can have absolute confidence in the safety of our food supply."

Pohl also pointed out that Iowa Beef Packers and other large packing facilities have policies against slaughtering "downer" cattle such as the affected cow in Washington. Downer cattle are non-ambulatory cattle that can't get up and move on their own.

Bliven added that in his opinion, the issue is one of "feed safety" for the beef industry, not "food safety" for consumers.

John Bushnell of Sisters, co-owner of Tumalo Feed Company, echoed those sentiments.

"I am really confident that the USDA will get a clamp on it," he said.

His restaurant was fully booked after Christmas and he said it appears public perception is that there is no need for a panicked reaction.

Bliven stated that his Sisters clientele is very knowledgeable about the meat they buy. They like their beef, are aware, and on the whole are not worried about the safety of Ray's meat.

Bliven feels that those who are really worried are not seeing the whole story, which is that the alleged connection between BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) occurs when bovine brain and spinal nerve tissue is consumed by humans.

"The U.S. (consumer) doesn't eat beef brains," he said.

The part of the beef animal that Americans do consume, the large muscle cuts, have never been shown to carry any indicators of BSE.

According to the Center for Disease Control website, there is "strong evidence" of a transmission connection between the two diseases. There has never been a proven case of a human "catching" vCJD from a cow.

Circumstantial evidence is there, in that all cases of vCJD have occurred in countries where BSE has also occurred. But the CDC also states that the chance of contracting the disease from eating beef or beef products appears to be very small.

In England, for example, where vCJD was first discovered, the risk is assess-ed at around one case per 10 billion servings. It goes on to say that the chances are even smaller in other countries and are negligible in the United States.

Pohl noted that the risk of a human perishing from the flu, cancer or accidental drowning, is much greater than from vCJD.