Consumer confidence in beef supply high despite BSE discovery.

Most Americans are aware of the recent discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state and despite the finding, a majority (65 percent) believe the nation's beef supply is safe, according to a recent survey conducted by Rutgers University's Food Policy Institute (FPI). Consumption of meat infected with mad cow disease is believed to result in a similar human condition known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a rare and fatal brain disease for which there is no treatment or cure. While news of the Washington state discovery immediately evaporated the $3-billion U.S. beef export market, Americans are relatively unperturbed, according to the survey. Most said their confidence in the beef supply has not changed, and some said the USDA's prompt and efficient treatment of the case has actually led to an increase in confidence.

"This isolated case is not enough to dramatically disturb domestic confidence in the beef supply," said William Hallman, lead author of the FPI study. "Unlike consumers in many countries, Americans have a history of trust in their food regulators, and have a strong belief that the U.S. food supply is safe."

Nearly 68 percent of those who had heard of the Washington state case said their confidence in the beef supply remains unchanged, and 8 percent said their confidence increased. One in five Americans (22 percent) said their confidence has decreased, albeit not by much. Only 7 percent said their confidence has decreased "a great deal," while 15 percent said it has fallen "some" or "a little." However, this decline in confidence does seem to be accompanied by a decrease in beef consumption among those who are most concerned. About 14 percent said they are eating less beef and 5 percent said they had eliminated beef from their diets altogether.

While confirming the drop in stated consumption patterns found in other recent polls, the Rutgers study suggests this reduction is likely temporary for most. Only about 1 percent of Americans say they have given up beef for good. Nearly 40 percent of those who have stopped eating beef said they will resume eating it within six months, assuming no other cases of mad cow are found, while a little more than a quarter said it will take more than six months.

Consumer confidence seems to have been buoyed by the belief that farmers and the government are taking appropriate measures to control mad cow disease. On a 1 to 10 scale where 10 meant "very confident," half of those interviewed assigned a rating of 8 or more to the government's ability to control the disease and conveyed similar confidence in farmers. "Recent government actions may also have boosted confidence," says FPI Associate Director Brian Schilling. "Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman's message that the likelihood of human illness resulting from the case of mad cow disease is extremely low appears to have reassured many about the safety of the beef supply," he said. Two thirds of Americans who had heard of the case also were aware of Veneman's statement, and 22 percent of these said it made them more confident in the safety of U.S. beef. Similarly, 18 percent felt reassured by USDA's determination that the cow was of Canadian origin.

Despite this confidence, many Americans expect more U.S. cases to surface. Of those interviewed, 70 percent believe it is likely that another mad cow case will be found (27 percent think it is "very likely"), and more than one-third incorrectly believed that other cases of mad cow had already been discovered in the United States (another 10 percent were not sure).