USA Today by Anita Manning American consumers, bombarded with news about livestock diseases in Europe, are confused and making food-buying decisions based on wrong information, a new poll finds. Most said they had reduced or eliminated ground beef from their diets, according to the poll by public relations firm Porter Novelli, which represents clients in the food industry. Mad cow disease has infected about 100 humans, most of them in England. The brain-wasting disease is fatal.
Most scientists believe the humans caught the disease by consuming infected meat.
Mad cow disease emerged in England in the mid-1980s and has resulted in the slaughter of more than 77,000 cattle. Crawford says consumer concern has alarmed the industry. Just in the last week, there has been an enormous number of meetings on BSE in the U.S. on the corporate level. Every food organization is cranking up its BSE machinery. The Porter Novelli poll of 815 people was conducted April 6-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.