We will be in Switzerland for 10 days in June. Is it safe to eat the beef or should we stick to fish or chicken? <BR> <BR>Thanks.

Stick w/ chicken or fish or pasta--why go looking for trouble?

We spent two weeks in Eastern Switzerland and saw very little beef, if any, on menus. Menus were predominately various forms of deer with maybe one chicken, one veal, one pork offering. Once in a while, a fish dish. If you see Veal Zurich on a menu, order it! Once we discovered it, we had it everywhere we went and just loved it. And, I'm still not able to duplicate it at home.

There is absolutely no need to get in a state about our european beef as the only people to catch anything are the ones who eat mcdonalds EVERY day, so depending on what you're planning to do...

If you're REALLY concerned, don't eat beef. If you're MILDLY concerned, stay away from sausages and products where beef has been incorporated into other meat products. Otherwise, just don't worry. Your chances of getting Mad Cow Disease are about as good as your chances of being chosen to be on a Ricola advertisement.

For those that have access, there was a very interesting programme on BBC World Service today (Correspondants)that identified there may be an alternate source for BSE-PRION-CJE. <BR> <BR>It postulates that it may have been caused by a chemical "cure" for a parisite.

Veal is actually beef from calves instead of adult cows. <BR>As for eating deer, BSE is now thought to have been brought into the UK by an infected foreign deer. <BR>Some deer in the US are infected and I read in the Washington Post that hunters who eat the deer they kill are probably incubating the disease.

This is a TRAVEL forum. <BR>Do you ask your doctor where to go on vacation? <BR>Do you trust health advice from total strangers who obviously have differing views? <BR>This type of post only stirs up ill-founded opinions. <BR>Eg- one poster doesn't seem to realise that calves don't develop BSE , nor that it can't be transferred to people by eating meat.(one slaughterman here caught it after an accident, he had an open wound, anyway its like having a cold) <BR>Please lets stick to what we know about, instead of spreading false rumours, or bunk about what the Washington Post thinks is "probably" happening. <BR>No newspaper here in UK(& we have some crackers) has suggested that BSE could be caught from eating meat. <BR>If you really want advice just ask passing strangers in the street, they know as much as this forum but at least they don't publish their ignorance. <BR>Remember many are losing their living due to this, no need to make things worse. <BR>

I am confused..are we discussing BSE or Foot & Mouth related safety to meat?

I agree with Frank that ignorance is compounding the problem for farmers in Europe. However, basically everything else Frank said is incorrect. <BR> <BR>Please read reliable sources for CORRECT information on BSE and foot and mouth. I'm not going to start explaining why Frank is mistaken because my explanation would be too detailed for this forum, and I don't want to take the chance of making a factual error. Do some research. It's not difficult.

OK Tim fair enough! I was trying to get through my post without getting technical & I sensed I was arguing against myself by doing it at all, but I wouln't advise anyone to look to me for advice. <BR>Problem is even the experts here in the UK disagree -eg I've heard wildly differing opinions on F&M vaccinations from paid "experts", some saying it begins to work after 2 days, some declaring that it does nothing for weeks. <BR>Probably the thing is just too complex to fit into the simple explanations people demand, also politics interfere, hence the confusion. <BR>I think there is no sense in untrained people getting into the technicalities, but there is one fact which Judy could research which could help her decide: <BR>How many American tourists have caught BSE over how many years?They have been eating European beef for longer than the incubation period. <BR>There is unlikely to be much info pertaining specifically to Switzerland.