Industry awaits mad cow impact.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

Munching on a Big Mac and fries Wednesday afternoon at the McDonald's in Springfield's Gateway district, Dave Jorgensen fretted more about the outcome of the Las Vegas Bowl than about contracting mad cow disease.

"I'm just not worried about it," he said. "I have a better chance of getting hit by lightning."

A day after a single cow in Washington was identified as possibly having deadly bovine spongiform encephalopathy, some Oregon consumers were taking a relaxed approach - even as some nations moved to ban U.S. beef imports and some Oregon retailers pulled possibly tainted ground-beef supplies from the shelves.

About 10 percent of the $384 million worth of beef produced in Oregon each year is exported, mostly to the Pacific Rim. And on Wednesday, Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers of U.S. beef, announced import bans.

U.S. consumers, though, may be more sanguine.

"It was one cow, and I think McDonald's is really careful where they get their meat," said Jorgensen, a Portland resident en route to visit family in Medford - hopefully in time to catch the Oregon State-New Mexico game.

Some consumers said that only if more cows prove to have been infected, will they rethink their eating habits.

The reaction of consumers will likely be crucial in determining the impact of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease on Oregon retailers, cattle ranchers, and processors.

On Wednesday, several large grocery chains, including WinCo Foods, Safeway and Albertsons, pulled from their Pacific Northwest stores ground beef from suppliers implicated in the health scare.

Two Pacific Northwest packing houses - Interstate Meats of Federal Way, Wash., and Willamette Valley Meats of Portland - had received meat from the possibly infected Washington cow.

Mike Read, spokesman for Boise-based WinCo Foods, said the company on Tuesday pulled all ground beef it had received from one of the suppliers.

"It was a voluntary decision made out of an abundance of caution," Read said. "We have no reason to believe it was bad product, but we pulled it and we are back on the shelf with new product from a different supplier."

Albertsons and Safeway made similar moves Wednesday. The substitute hamburger was ground in local stores, they said.

"When you don't know for sure, it's better to err on the side of caution," said Safeway spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan.

All three chains said customers who bought ground beef in the past few days are welcome to bring it back for a refund or exchange.

The Washington flap didn't deter Elaine Soto of Eugene from picking up a large beef rib roast at the Coburg Road Safeway on Wednesday. "It is cause for concern, but I won't stop buying (hamburger) unless more cows end up infected," she said. "I think to some extent the media is blowing this out of proportion. It's just one cow."

But at the Albertsons store on Coburg, Dannie Hurstman offered a different perspective. Hurstman, who moved to Springfield last month from Los Angeles, said she stopped eating ground beef four years ago, after the fatal flare-up of the disease in England.

"I still eat steak once in awhile, but I don't think hamburger is safe," she said. "People have died from this."

The Washington announcement sent shock waves through Oregon's beef industry.

Prices for beef prior to the news on Tuesday were hovering at 10-year highs, said Greg Smith, executive director of the 2,300-member Oregon Cattlemen's Association.

"For the first time in a decade, our producers have had a chance to earn a profit and clean up their balance sheets," Smith said.

The run-up in prices is due to a nationwide drought that forced ranchers to thin their herds, which decreased supply, and the mad cow outbreak in Canada in May, which led many nations to ban Canadian beef and turn to the United States.

Oregon ranchers in 2002 produced $384 million worth of beef, making beef the number two commodity in the state behind nursery products, Smith said. Combined with the dairy industry, the cattle industry is worth more than $700 million in revenue.

Dalton Straus, president of the Oregon Beef Council, said producers have worked hard over the last several years to increase beef exports to Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Now, some of those importers are banning U.S. beef.

"I've been on the phone all morning trying to figure out how this is going to affect the industry," said Straus, who runs a farm and ranch with 300 head of cattle near Medford.

"The (health) safeguards we have in place worked like we intended," Straus added.

"Right now we are not concerned about the safety of the product because we raise high-quality beef in Oregon," he said. "But we are concerned about the public perception of the product."

Smith said his group views the incident in Washington as an isolated event - at least until more information is available.

"We see it as a positive that the government has a system in place to test, isolate and quarantine quickly," Smith said.

Jim Males, head of the Animal Sciences Department at Oregon State University, said he's confident of the safety of American beef and plans to serve a beef rib roast to the 12 guests coming to his house today for Christmas dinner. "There's no reason to be afraid of the meat supply," he said.

Americans generally don't consume a cow's brain and spinal cord, he said, which is where the organism that causes mad cow disease resides.

"That's not going to be part of the beef that people have on their table" today, he said.

MAD COW

Developments:

Economy: Investors have been dumping stocks of beef companies and restaurants that feature beef

Recall: A Washington state slaughterhouse has voluntarily recalled more than 10,000 pounds of beef processed with the infected cow

Exports: Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers of U.S. beef, banned the products. Canada announced a limited ban