Officials try to determine if mad cow beef hit Las Vegas

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

Although some of the recalled beef from a Holstein confirmed with mad cow disease may have been distributed in Nevada, beef in Las Vegas markets and restaurants continued selling briskly Monday.

Federal investigators have said that meat covered by the recall was shipped to at least eight states and Guam. Nevada was included in the recall. Agriculture Department officials said Monday at least 80 percent of the beef went to Oregon and Washington state stores.

Clark County Health District officials on Monday were trying to determine if any of the recalled beef was distributed in Las Vegas, Health District spokesman David Tonelli said. Federal officials said that the beef under the recall went to small Mexican and Asian markets.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified Nevada as one of the retail markets that received product from a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease," Tonelli said in a prepared statement.

The Meat Saw Market on North Eastern Avenue continued to sell all types of meat on Monday, clerk Sonny Lee said.

Lee said he got his beef from California and Phoenix distributors.

"This meat is fresh," Lee said, his fingers ringing up sales on his cash register.

Federal officials said Monday that the Washington state dairy cow in question was born in April 1997, four months before the United States and Canada outlawed the use of cattle feed containing ingredients considered the leading means of transmitting the disease.

Confirming the age of the cow was important, Agriculture Department officials said, because it means the cow probably contracted the disease by eating a type of protein containing rendered remains of cattle that was banned as cattle feed in both the United States and Canada in August 1997.

Last week U.S. officials announced a recall of about 10,000 pounds of beef from the diseased cow and 20 other cattle slaughtered on the same day, Dec. 9, in Mabton, Wash.

Omaha Steaks, based in Omaha, Neb., had received few inquiries, said Joel Briggs in the company's customer services department.

"As far as I know, we haven't heard much," Briggs said.

The Agriculture Department had received about 100 calls by Monday, officials said.