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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StocksDATsoar who wrote (124827)	12/24/2003 11:51:34 AM
From: Rocket Red	Respond to of 150070

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT NO SUCH THING AS P&D its XMAS TIME

To: StocksDATsoar who wrote (124827)	12/24/2003 11:53:26 AM
From: Rocket Red	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 150070

I think your Beauty Queen was infected with MAD COW U.S. Officials Trying to Trace BSE Cow to Birth Herd 11:50 EST Wednesday, December 24, 2003 Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Federal officials raced Wednesday to find out where a Washington state cow, apparently infected with mad cow disease, was born and may have been infected. Even as the investigation continued, officials sought to reassure Americans about the safety of their food supply. That didn't stop several nations from banning U.S. beef, including Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers. U.S. Agriculture Department officials told a briefing that the cow joined the Washington State herd in October 2001 and was culled from other cows Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving. But because the brain-wasting disease is usually transmitted through contaminated feed and has an incubation period of four to five years, it's " important to focus on the feed where she was born" in 1999, Agriculture Department chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven said. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said tissue samples from the diseased cow were put aboard a commercial jet expected to arrive in the United Kingdom later Wednesday for conclusive tests of the preliminary diagnosis. She said results of those tests could be available in three to five days. She said the animal fell ill on at large dairy farm with two sites and 4,000 cows in southern Washington state. All the animals on this farm have been quarantined by the state. If the preliminary testing confirms the preliminary finding, it is likely that other cows in the herd will be slaughtered. The impact was evident almost immediately with various nations banning imports of U.S. beef after the Agriculture Department announced that a so-called downed cow, meaning it was unable to move on its own, had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease. The cow, from a farm near Yakima, Wash., was slaughtered Dec. 9. Ms. Veneman said parts of the animal went to three processing plants in Washington State. But she said there was no danger to the food supply because "muscle cuts of meat have almost no risk." Agriculture Department officials and cattle industry executives tried to allay fears that U.S. beef supplies had become infected, saying the U.S. inspection system was working effectively. "The important point is that the high-risk materials --that is, the brain and spinal column that would cause infectivity in humans -- were removed from this cow," Ms. Veneman said on ABC television's "Good Morning America" Wednesday. She noted that since the early 1990s, the U.S. has banned the use of cow and sheep byproducts for animal feed, which cuts off a major mode of transmission of the disease. "We are in an abundance of caution," Ms. Veneman told NBC's "Today" show. USDA officials announced early Wednesday that Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash., is voluntarily recalling approximately 10,410 pounds of raw beef that may have been exposed to tissues containing mad cow. They said the beef was produced Dec. 9 and shipped to several establishments for further processing and is being recalled "out of an abundance of caution" even though it "would not be expected to be infected or have an adverse public health impact." The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said it's continuing its investigation to ensure that all the recalled beef is correctly identified and tracked, but gave no further details immediately. There was no answer at the telephone number listed for Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. after the recall, which was announced early Wednesday. Appearing on CBS' "The Early Show," Ms. Veneman asserted, "The risk is extremely low to human health and I would without hesitation say that no one should be afraid to eat beef." Mad cow disease eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry. People can contract a form of mad cow disease if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. The human form of mad cow disease so far has killed 143 people in Britain and 10 elsewhere, none in the U.S.