Taking 1 week trip to London, just how safe is their meat supply?

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Hi all, this'll probably be my last post for a long while....

The wife will be joining me in early April and we're taking a one week trip to London for a vacation, after which we'll come back here and do my final out-processing before flying to Georga to pick up the truck and drive back to Alaska.

So, just how safe is the British meat supply? I know that the odds are way against us encountering any contaminated meat since there has only been something like 81 people who have contracted Crutchfield-Jacobs (sp?) in a country of millions of people.
But on the other hand the incubation for the disease is really long so there could be up to thousands who are infected and just dont know it yet so I have to admit Im a little concerned.

Any opinions? . . . Thanks

Dave

-- Dave (Ak) (daveh@ecosse.net), March 14, 2001

Answers

Be prepared, if you go into the rural areas at all, you will probably have to go through some sort of decontamination procedure before leaving England because of the Hoof and Mouth Disease epidemic there now. This is something from our government that has just been implemented to try to prevent its coming here. As far as the meat goes, I don't have any advice to you. I myself would stick to fish 'n chips or vegetarian, or chicken. Check out the http://www.mad- cow.org/ web page for more information.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), March 14, 2001.

Dave:

First a clarification: CJD occurs, apparently spontaneously, in about 1:1M people annually. Thus, Britian will experience about 80 cases annually. There have only been about 80 confirmed cases of variant CJD, attributed to MCD/BSE, in the past six years there. Any MCD/BSE tainted meat should have worked its way out of the food supply long ago. However, I'd still stick with whole boneless cuts where possible.

You are likely to find any travel very restrictive in certain areas due to Foot and Mouth Disease. If you just plan to do cities, that shouldn't be a problem.

Will you be going to London and possibly seeing the rebuilt Shakesphere Theater? If so, I have a favor to ask.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 14, 2001.


If you want the real answer to that, go to the Backwoods Home board and ask Eric. He is right in the middle of one of the hardest hit areas. Just started raising rabbits for food, within the last two weeks. Since he's in the middle of it, he can tell you better than I could!!

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 14, 2001.

Dave, I would also drive straight home after your trip and wash everything including your shoes, luggage, clothes before you handle your stock. There were photos of folks having to walk through "Hoof bathes :)" coming off the planes. Wonder who washed down the tires on the planes that were on the tarmack. Wonder if any of the guys servicing or guiding the planes on the tarmack have stock? Sorry but please do not come visiting here for awhile :) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 14, 2001.

If you donate blood, check with the red cross to see if they will still accept it after eating red meat there. Most of the people I know who are there, have stayed with fish and vegetables. If you are there longer then 6 months, you can never donate blood again.I don't know about this scare though.

-- lynne (not@home.com), March 14, 2001.


Fish & chips,taken with plenty of lager.Who wants warm beer?

-- greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), March 14, 2001.

The ag department has told us not to allow folks on our property, who have been 'across the pond,' for at least 6 months.

My English friends tell me that horse has become the popular meat. Horses can't get Hoof and Mouth, but they can carry/transfer it on their hooves.

I see they've stopped shipping tractors from England as Hoof and Mouth could be on the tires.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), March 14, 2001.


No problem Viki, at this point the only stock I have are tree stumps and I wouldnt mind it a bit if they caught some type of horrible rotting tree stump disease and just fell apart :-)

And I think I'll pass on the warm beer.....

Thanks

Dave

-- Dave (Ak) (daveh@ecosse.net), March 14, 2001.


Dave, you might only have stumps, but what do your neighbors have!!!!

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), March 15, 2001.

Hate to burst your bubbles, but it's all politics. In Europe you'll hear that U.S. beef is unfit for consumption because of growth hormones and U.S. food products in general are unsafe because they are riddled with genetically modified crops. As for variant CJD, as far as I am aware there is still no absolutely proven link to BSE (i.e. cross species transmission). I would, however, be concerned about bringing back Hoof and Mouth disease. What are the airlines doing to address this? And finally, beer in English pubs is stored in cellars, which are at about the right temperature for a real ale. They are certainly not warm! Real ale (or even real lager) is a very different product to American "beer". Cooling suppresses the bad taste!

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), March 15, 2001.


I lived in London for 3 1/2 years, right after the first BSE scare. We are fine and we ate the meat. In fact, I never worried about the meat. I worry more about the antibiotics, pesticides and junk that pervades the meat in our country! You should be fine. If you want to avoid eating meat, you will find plenty of poultry dishes there. Avoid fast food places as they get their meat from other European countries. There are also organic restaurants in London which serve only organically raised food.

have fun!

-- amy (acook@in4web.com), March 21, 2001.


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