Mercer County is two time zones removed from the nearest state that could have received meat from a Holstein sick with mad cow disease.

The in-state health risks are "extremely low" for those who consume meat according to Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff, but some county businesses will lose money anyway.

Rod Loomis, president and CEO of Mercer Livestock Auction, Inc., said he lost a $100 million deal with China for a large export of dairy cattle and other items such as bull semen. Loomis said he's likely to lose other orders to Australia and New Zealand.

More than two dozen nations have banned U.S. beef imports since the mad-cow was slaughtered Dec. 9 in Washington state and diagnosed with the disease Dec. 23.

"This is not a good deal for us," said Loomis, who also operates Mercer Livestock Yards. "We have a lot of large buyers and medium packers and they may not want to carry any inventory right now."

Trish Loomis, vice president of the auction, said prices fell "$20 off the top" for cows and slaughter cattle, a drop confirmed by figures released by Wolff's office Monday afternoon.

Wolff and local meat providers didn't hesitate in assuring consumers it is safe to eat meat despite the one confirmed case of mad cow disease that has links to eight Western states and Canada.

"The food supply in the U.S. is without question the safest in the world," Wolff said. "One of the things we need to keep reinforcing is that there is a surveillance program at work and it's obviously working. That's how this animal was detected. People are working hard to make sure citizens get the safest food available."

"We really have no need to be concerned about the safety of the meat," said Lee Hanson, proprietor of Hanson's Freezer Meats, Sharon. "The USDA has really jumped on this with both feet and has tracked it down."

Mercer County residents have good reason to believe their meat is safe, according to one businessman.

"We're in a terrific area where we have small-time retailers and farmers that only handle local beef," said John Whiting of J.W. and Sons, New Wilmington.

Whiting added he has a federal inspector on site 40 hours per week testing for such diseases as E.coli and salmonella and that he doesn't import any beef from Canada.

The full effect of the drop in livestock prices remains to be seen, but county businesses affiliated with the cattle trade can only figure to suffer from a disease detected over two thousand miles away.

"Personally, the more attention the media gives to it, the more they're going to react over a period of time," Hanson said . "As of right now, we haven't noticed any change in people buying beef."

"It will probably take a month to six weeks to feel the effects," said David Livingston of Livingston's Packing Company, Jamestown. "If our customers keep asking for local beef, that's what we'll sell. We can control that. Ninety-nine percent of the hamburger we sell is local beef."

Loomis said he doesn't predict local retailers will alter their prices in the near future so the average consumer will likely not be affected.

Wolff said beef prices have been very high the last 4-5 months due to increased demand stemming from the Atkins Diet and because U.S. borders have been closed to Canadian beef since May.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the infected cow was born in Canada in April 1997, which has complicated the effort to trace its travels across international and state borders. The Atkins diet is a high-protein weight-loss plan made popular in recent years that thrives on consuming more meat and less carbohydrates.

"I would feel very safe eating beef or feeding beef to anyone in my family," Loomis said. "Literally hundreds of thousands of cows are killed daily and this is one cow."

You can e-mail Herald staff writer Cary Snyder at csnyder@sharonherald.com

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