BOB

HOW, IF ANYTHING HAS YOUR RECENT TRIP TO EUROPE BEEN EFFECTED BY MAD COW DISEASE. DID YOU CHANGE YOUR EATING HABITS? WERE MEAL PRICES HIGHER BECAUSE THEY ARE IMPORTING BEEF FROM AUSTRAILIA? ANY OTHER COMMENTS ABOUT THIS.

Santa Chiara

The first--and obviusly infallible--symptom of mad cow as well a hoof and mouth disease is to type messages in all caps.

elvira

Well, mad cow disease certainly didn't *cause* me to go to Europe; that seems sort of silly.

pam

Good catch, Elvira.

frank

Europe imports beef from South Africa & South America (esp. Argentina), don't know much about Australian imports.

BSE caused no increase in imports.

If anything it resulted in less meat being bought.
Some extra foreign imports are being sucked in for use as fresh meat due to foot & mouth, but remember that the EC has a "beef mountain" of frozen beef which has been an embarrassment to it for years.

xxx

Q: Why do they call it PMS?
A: Because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.