Mad Cow Found in More States; Beef Prices to Change

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says meat cut from a cow stricken with mad cow disease was shipped to more states than originally thought. The department has added Alask, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and the territory of Guam to the list. Originally, the USDA said the meat only went to Washington state, Oregon, California and Nevada. Federal officials have recalled an estimated 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and 19 others that were slaughtered in Washington state. There are no reports of mad cow in Arkansas, but what could spread this far is the effect it has on beef prices at your local grocery store. Some experts say it`s too early to tell, but they`re expecting prices to go down. That`s because of an increased supply in the United States, since so many countries have banned beef from the U.S. "Now they`ve got all the beef and the feed lots and everything`s ready to go and there`s nowhere to ship them. So the price of beef is really gonna go down. It`s good for the consumer if they`ll eat it," said Dwight Sawyer of Sawyer`s grocery. The change in price also depends on whether or not the U.S. can confirm where that one infected cow came from. "If we can prove the cow came from Canada, we`re gonna be clear on this whole thing," Sawyer said. Beef prices are already at record highs, so if they do decline, they`ll return to what they were 16 to 18 months ago. Prices soared because of increased demand caused by increased exports to Japan and popular high protein diets. Al Watkins, of The Butcher Shop Steakhouse, says we`ll have to see what happens Monday when the market opens. If beef prices drop by the maximum of $.05 per pound, then we`ll know there`s still some concern of mad cow in the market. He says the wholesale market has already noticed a 15% drop over the last week.