Bush tells Americans to keep eating beef

Jan. 2nd, 2004. AP

FALFURRIAS, Texas -- U.S. President George W. Bush shot quail on a hunting trip yesterday but ate beef and encouraged Americans to do the same despite concern over mad cow disease.

"I think I shot five," Bush told reporters at Brooks County Airport after returning from the hunt with his father on a dusty and desolate stretch of land in southern Texas.

The president said Americans should feel comfortable eating beef while Agriculture Department officials try to prevent any mad cow outbreak in the wake of the discovery of an infected Holstein in Washington state.