MSN
The human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is thought to be contracted by eating meat from an infected animal, specifically from the brain or spinal cord. Officials stressed that these parts of the sick cow were removed before the rest of the carcass was sent to processing plants.

I’m content to have a freezer full" of beef, said Christmas shopper Helen Spinetto of Cambridge, Mass. “But if I had to purchase it again, maybe I’d think twice."

On Wall Street, stocks in meatpacking companies and restaurant chains took a hit. Among the losers: McDonald’s Corp., Wendy’s International and Tyson Foods, which relies on beef for nearly half its business.

Beef prices fell their daily limit of 1.5 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are expected to continue dropping. Ironically, U.S. beef prices have soared this year since a ban on Canadian imports because of a single case of mad cow disease north of the border.

After the news of the U.S. case, at least 11 countries have banned U.S. beef including the three biggest importers, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.