"Non-Definitive" Cow Tests Negative For BSE

[grassfarmer]

Oh the odds are miniscule - it has often been said the risk in the UK was a lot less than the risk of being killed by lightening, which incidentally was more likely to happen than for you to become a millionaire through winning a lottery.
None the less over 140 human beings have died of vCJD and until we can prove decisively that this is not related to eating any beef products we have a responsibility to consumers. We must get it right and to me part of that is being accurate in what we say which Mr Boyle of AMI was not.

[farmers_son]

Grassfarmer: When Canada had its first BSE positive in May 2003 the federal government invited an International Review Committee to make recommendations regarding BSE and set out required food safety procedures. These people are world class scientists and experts in their field. Canada has followed their recommendations, part of which was removal of SRMs.

If these experts had seen any potential risks associated with eating hamburger from Canadian cows they would have made recommendations to correct any problems. It is very unlikely that armchair observers like us can provide any further useful information regarding BSE that these international experts did not already know. These scientists were confident that the measures that they recommended and which have been put in place would provide food safety for our consumers and consumer in other countries.

The Report of the International Review Panel can be seen at:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/internate.shtml

The Canadian cow herd’s very, very low incidence of BSE provides further assurance that all our beef, including hamburger, is wholesome and is the safest beef in the world.

[silverback]

And how many have died from salmonella or E coli in the same time frame?

It is so unbelievably ridiculous how the media (and everyone for that matter) will concentrate on something that sounds good on the TV instead of putting some truth out there.

[grassfarmer]

I'll withdraw from this thread as everyone seems to think I am saying Canadian beef is unsafe - which I'm not. I'm merely trying to highlight some potential pitfalls in a post BSE environment. Just don't get too cocky -we're not out of the BSE woods yet.
One thing that might stand looking at for example is the SRM removal standards. A recurring problem in Europe has been small lengths of spinal cord turning up in shipments of beef imported into the UK from Germany, Holland and France among others. Given that slaughter line speeds are many times faster in N. America than in Europe I just hope that the job is being done properly here. This is the kind of thing that can lead to problems if someone cuts corners and the story comes to media attention.

[cowman]

Well science is science, and snakeoil is snakeoil and sometimes its hard to tell the difference?
When you have groups like R-CALF doing their best to smear the science and say the product is unsafe, what can you do? A lot of people don't buy into the concept of all knowing "experts"...in fact they tend to take everything with a grain of salt? So when you have a group of cattlemen saying the "science" is flawed who can you believe?
Consumers are swayed fairly easily? They tend to believe the National Enquirer more than the government?
I'm with grassfarmer on this one...test the OTM cattle! Being squeaky clean is never wrong in the eyes of the consumer?