at least one affects any homemade food (cooked or raw because even
though cooking kills E. coli the remaining Shiga toxin from this strain
of E. coli is a problem) using that type of beef but is a much smaller
recall (from a California company) not affecting the entire nation
unlike that the one from Nebraska Beef Ltd (which some markets resell
under other names):

See:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/2008_news_releases/index.asp

I feel sorry for other meat processors and farmers in Nebraska because
this company's name "Nebraska Beef" has caused some confusion with fear
that some places won't buy any beef from the state. Just a very quick
look spots something like 3 large recalls from that plant in 2 years,
at least 2 for Class 1 (serious and potentially fatal) contaminants.
Somehow it seems like it would be a good thing for states to ban food
processing places from using their states' names as the company names.
Then clean and reputable farms and processors would not be at any risk
when places mess up like this.

At the bottom of that page you can arrange to sign up for news releases
so you each can be alerted very early when a problem occurs. Then it
won't be necessary to hope that my life hasn't gotten too busy for me
to check my mail, or that an alert sent to me won't be lost in the
mail.

The FDA provides the same email alert service. It carries some food
recall information while the USDA carries others, and the FDA carries
pet food recall info so signing up for alerts from BOTH can protect
everyone:

http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html

I've got a full life off the internet and the internet is not always
reliable, so while I have a history of reporting recalls and update
news on recalls for each and every type of food group ferrets use (from
kibbles to canned to treats, to meats, to poultry, to fish, etc.)
people do have to realize that there will be times when I will simply
be too busy or an alert may not have reached me. Please, DO bookmark
those two locations and, please, do sign up for the alerts since it is
better to avoid a problem than to treat one.

I do NOT have the recall info for other nations. There is almost always
someone who asks about their own country, so I HAVE tried to find a
page that lists similar agencies in multiple nations but I can't find
any such resource. It would be a very good links page for people to
have available if one were created by anyone.

Could people in other countries share with the various ferret lists
that deal with health and food the URLs they use to check for any types
of relevant food recalls in their countries, or the news agencies they
have found in their nations to be very comprehensive on this score?

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6063]