Beef products from cattle tested for mad cow disease are distributed before the test results come back, because the risk of contracting the disease from the animal’s meat is extremely low, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

”The infected part of the brain is the spinal cord and the brain tissue, and those tissue specimens aren’t processed in the human food chain,” said Dore Mobley, USDA public affairs specialist.

Federal officials insist U.S. meat is safe because the parts that carry the infection are removed from the cow before its meat is processed for human consumption.

Samples from a cow slaughtered at a slaughterhouse in Moses Lake, Wash., came back positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) last week. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service recalled more than 10,000 pounds of meat from the group of 20 cows slaughtered there earlier in the month.

More than 20,000 cows have been tested each year for the past two years for BSE, the USDA reports. There are more than 35 million cows slaughtered annually in the United States and a total of 95 million to 100 million cows.

In a press conference Monday, Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinary officer for the USDA, said the number of cows tested in the United States is 45 times greater than what the World Animal Health Standards advises.

The agency only tests cows that are considered ”high risk,” such as cows that exhibit symptoms of central nervous disorders, cows that cannot stand and a sample of older, dying cows.

Dalton Hobbs, spokesman with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said the state doesn’t provide its own testing for BSE, though testing at the state level is under consideration following the first case of the disease.

”Because of it’s specialized nature, it’s something we haven’t done,” he said.

Mobley, with the USDA, said $10.5 million is allocated for BSE surveillance, which includes the testing. That money pays for most of the testing costs, she said, though she didn’t know how much it costs to test each cow.

As of Monday, more than 30 countries – accounting for 90 percent of American beef exports – have banned American beef products, the Associated Press reported.

Still, officials from the Oregon Beef Council and Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said they hoped the BSE scare would have only short-term effects on beef sales.

Dianne Byrne Johnston, executive director of the Oregon Beef Council, said most beef is sold domestically, with 10 percent of the country’s beef sold internationally.

In 2002, $6.2 million of beef passed through the port of Portland, heading to foreign ports, with most heading toward Japan, she said.

Japan is just one of the countries banning beef from the United States.

All of the state’s calves and cattle are valued at $384 million and account for 11 percent of Oregon’s agriculture industry, she said.

Coy Cowart, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said his cattle auction yard in Lebanon was selling cows Monday at prices similar to the weeks before the case of BSE was discovered. ”The packers called and asked for this meat,” he said. ”We were skeptical at first (of holding an auction) but it seems to be selling.”

Kelly Kearsley can be reached at 541-383-0348 or at kkearsley@bendbulletin.com.