Beef recall expands to 8 states

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Meat from a sick Yakima Valley cow may have been shipped to at least eight states and Guam, officials announced yesterday, indicating the potentially contaminated meat traveled farther than initially thought.

Investigators said meat from the sick cow may have been shipped to Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam in addition to four states — Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada — identified Saturday. They stressed again that the beef, which may already have been consumed, poses virtually no risk to humans because muscle meat is not believed to carry mad-cow disease.

Meat traced Investigators have determined that some of the meat from the diseased cow likely went to: • Alaska • California • Guam • Hawaii • Idaho • Montana • Nevada • Oregon • Washington

In other developments, U.S. agriculture officials arrived in Japan yesterday to try to persuade the largest importer of American beef to lift a trade ban. Other officials indicated they may take another look at a pending proposal that would reopen the U.S. market next year to live cows and other animals from Canada.

Canada is the probable birthplace of the Washington dairy cow that is the first, and thus far only, animal infected with mad-cow disease in this country.

The cow infected with the disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was slaughtered in Moses Lake on Dec. 9.

Despite their assurances of food safety, federal officials have taken the precaution to recall 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and 19 other cows slaughtered the same day. Officials say they are still recovering meat and won't know how much has been returned until later this week.

"We expect by now that many of the customers who may have purchased some of this meat have been notified by the grocery chain or other store where perhaps they purchased it," said Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a U.S. Agriculture Department veterinarian. "If not, they can contact those stores."

Petersen said the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia and sent Dec. 12 to two other plants, Willamette Valley Meat and Interstate Meat, both near Portland. Petersen has said much of the meat is being held by those facilities.

Willamette also received beef trimmings — parts used in meats such as hamburger. Officials say those were sold to some three dozen small, mom-and-pop Asian and Mexican facilities in Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.

Meat banned The following countries have banned U.S. beef because of a case of mad-cow disease: Argentina Australia Brazil Cambodia Canada (ban limited to processed meats) Chile China, including Hong Kong Colombia Costa Rica Egypt Indonesia Jamaica Japan Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Malaysia Mexico Nicaragua Peru Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Taiwan Thailand Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, AP sources

Supermarket chains in the West — Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway and WinCo Foods — have voluntarily removed ground-beef products from the affected distributors. Safeway has said it will look for another supplier.

The actions followed Saturday's announcement that the infected cow likely entered the United States from Canada with 73 other cattle in August 2001.

The revelation brought measured hope that the $175 billion U.S. beef industry would escape the devastating drop in livestock prices and job losses that hit Canada after the discovery of its first mad-cow case in May.

About 4,000 cattle remain under quarantine at the Sunny Dene Ranch near Yakima, where the sick Holstein was before being sent for slaughter. Another 400 animals are under quarantine at a Sunnyside feed farm, home of one of the infected cow's calves.

Agriculture officials are trying to determine how many of the 4,400 cattle may have been exposed to mad-cow disease and face being killed.

Federal laws require reimbursing owners for the fair-market value of animals killed to eradicate diseases.

Even more animals could be placed under quarantine and be destined for possible slaughter when authorities trace the whereabouts of the cattle that entered the United States at Eastport, Idaho, with the sick cow.

U.S. and Canadian authorities are trying to confirm that the infected cow was born in the Canadian province of Alberta in April 1997.

At least 29 nations have banned imports of U.S. beef. The list includes the biggest buyers of American beef, including Japan, South Korea and Mexico, as well as Australia and Brazil.

Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian with the Department of Agriculture, called the ban on imports of U.S. livestock and beef an "overreaction." DeHaven said research has shown that eating muscle of cattle raised in even places with moderate to high risk of mad-cow disease is extremely safe.

The disease concentrates in the animal's spinal cord and brain, parts not normally consumed by humans.

"The restrictions (on imports) that are in place now are not well-founded in science," DeHaven said during a telephone news conference yesterday.

The United States is the world's largest exporter of beef and beef products. The industry could lose billions of dollars in sales at home and abroad.

The economic fallout renewed calls for tighter monitoring of livestock.

DeHaven said the agency is considering regulatory changes "in partnership with the industry," including wider animal testing and reviewing the 1997 ban on using certain animal parts to feed livestock.

Information from Bloomberg News and the Associated Press is included in this report. Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com

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