BSE (Mad Cow)

I did a search of the board for the above topic and believe it or not it returned MM's carpet cleaning from October, 2000. AND I LOOKED AT THE PICTURES!

Enough!

I have a serious inquiry.

Has the european BSE scare changed the eating habits of the Spanish people in Spain?

How should I, as a visitor, react to what has been in the media?

Should we not eat beef while we are there?

Any and all comments are welcome.

Sol

Hi Sol

Try using a search for "Churros y Chocolate", which I think opened a whole topic on BSE (and the syndrome of the Balkan Mountains ). I think the question originally concerned the safety of milk, but soon progressed to BSE.

If I had more time, I'd do the search now and find out if I am right. I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction if I've got it wrong.

Jo-Anne

[This message has been edited by Jo-Anne (edited 02-07-2001).]

CLICK HERE for the "Churros y Chocolate" thread in the General Chatter forum.

Thank you both for your response.

The link led to the "Churros y Chocolate" thread which I had seen before but not read.

The issue still isn't very clear. Lots of finger pointing by the authorities but no definitive conclusions.

Sol,

I have to admit that now I eat less beef than before. Yes, I think Spanish habits are changing. You can feel people is very concerned about it. But for the moment there are many good things to eat instead beef. What I really miss is a good "Cocido" with some beef.

Saludos,
Celia




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Airport shuttle, limousine service and car rental.
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Celia

Thank you for your response.

Can I assume the reason you miss 'a good "Cocido" with some beef' is because of the BSE hysteria?

I see mad cow reports on Telediario on TVE now at regular intervals.

Leche

I heard on radio that sales of beef were 70% down. Higher prices in the supermarkets for pork, lamb etc and lower prices for beef.

The labels on the packaging of beef we've been buying recently states it is beef from slaughtered cows who were less than fifteen months old. Tastes delicious! If you're going to go, you may as well go happy! I saw plenty of fillet steaks on the tables when I dined out the other night.

I don't mean to be flippant about this issue and I am genuinely sorry for those who have lost relatives and friends to the human variant of the disease, but how many people are we talking about? A hundred over the past twenty years? I'm not sure, but I would think that there must have been more than a few steaks and beefburgers consumed in that time.

Agreed, however regardless of the silly hype, I avoid beef. I would rather not contract a disease as nasty as this one. Also those in the States might want to take notice as well:
http://www.lavanguardia.es/cgi-bin/noticia.pl?link=vb2927a&sec=soc&dia=29_01

Sol,

I have never eaten a lot of beff (I prefer fish) but right now I eat less than before, you know "Es mejor prevenir que curar". I know it`s almost imposible to get ill because of it but until the Goverment clarify everything out I prefer to wait and see what happens.

Saludos,
Celia




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Airport shuttle, limousine service and car rental.
http://www.aerocity.com

I found a few sites on Madcow disease and on general travel safety.

Article on Mad Cow disease
www.healthatoz.com/atoz/lifestyles/travel/traresfr3.htm
Healthy Travel
www.healthatoz.com/atoz/lifestyles/travel/traindex.asp
Safe Travel in Western Europe
www.cdc.gov/travel/westeurp.htm

This is the official governmental site of the BSE (Mad cow disease).

I think those of us who live in the US should be concerned about problems we have here. Even though we don't have MCD to deal with, we use growth hormones and just about everything else we can to make the cattle, chickens, pigs, and the rest grow bigger and fatter quicker. Although they don't have the same immediate effect, I wonder just how safe our meat supply really is. Even our vegetables are forced to grow through chemicals.

It isn't my intent to downplay MCD but I do think the incident rate is a lot smaller than the incident rate we have of someone contracting and dying of a disease associated with our toxic chemicals that seem acceptable is far higher than the risk we would ever have associated with beef in Spain. I can't say that's true for England/Scotland though... especially with this new problem their having.

Just my opinion..... for what its worth.

Wolf

very good point.