But the fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts – that is, the meat of the animal itself – should not cause any risk to human health. – Ann Veneman

I have to say that in this particular cow that were dealing with, those parts of the cow were removed, and so we dont think theres any risk or very negligible risk to human health with this particular incident. – Ann Veneman

Weve had risk assessments performed by Harvard University, which said that even if we did have a small number of cases in this country that the likelihood of it spreading or getting into any kind of human health problem is very, very small. – Ann Veneman