Mad Cow Scare Helps Companies With Animal Homing Devices

Updated from 8:25 a.m. EST

Government efforts to recall beef from a processing plant where an animal with mad cow disease was slaughtered continue to be hamstrung by the speed with which beef is distributed in the U.S. Several companies' shares were bid up Monday on grounds that their technology could resolve the problem in the future.

Eight states and Guam are believed to have received beef from the plant in Washington state where the infected cow and 20 others were turned into hamburger on Dec. 20. The states are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Investigators are increasingly fearful the hamburger has already been eaten, although experts say there's very little chance any infected matter reached the public because of federally mandated precautions taken at the slaughterhouse. Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it now believes the infected cow's herd came from Alberta, Canada, and that the 6-year-old animal was probably infected before being transported to the U.S. ...