By Kyle Peveto, Opinion Editor
Beef prices remain about 15 cents lower than before the Dec. 23 announcement that an Oregon cow contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
Area ranchers and USDA representatives remain optimistic that prices will rise, said Tim Hill, county executive director with the Farm Service Agency.
“Locally, it’s hurting them [the ranchers] pretty good,” Hill said.
Hill said the 26 countries that stopped importing beef from the United States, which constitute about 10 percent of beef sales, have forced down prices since the BSE finding. Prices on beef have recovered some, and Hill is confident the prices will continue to rise.
“I don’t see any reason why it will change our way of life,” he said.
People contract BSE from eating meat products that include infected brain or nervous tissue. BSE cannot be killed by ultraviolet light, ionizing radiation, chemical disinfectants or by cooking the meat.
Some traditional Hispanic foods like barbacoa and menudo often are made from brain and nervous tissue, but Abilene restaurants do not use these types of meat, according to Glenn Bailey, environmental health manager from the Abilene-Taylor County Health Department.
“The USDA, CDC and FDA have banned the use of those foods,” Bailey said.
A British lab confirmed at the end of December that the Oregon Holstein did have BSE. The USDA plans to build its own testing facility in Ames, Iowa, instead of sending every specimen to Britain for testing.
No evidence exists that BSE can be spread to humans by eating muscle cuts such as steaks or roasts. Foods that may be at risk are those that may inadvertently contain nervous system tissue, like sausage, hot dogs and hamburgers. Most of these processed meats do not contain nervous tissue intentionally, but brain and nervous tissue may contaminate meat in processing.
After Britain’s mad cow scare in the ’90s, the World Health Organization worked to ban meats that could contain BSE, and much of the world’s meat is not susceptible to the disease. In 1997 the United States also banned the practice of using cattle byproducts to feed other cattle.
