I've been rather relaxed in regard to the American mad cow disease outbreak. As a vegetarian, I thought I could afford to be. But, let's not understimate the disease — officially bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Other countries have banned the importation of American beef and the industry is reeling from the blow. The recall now includes products anyone other than someone obsessed with reading labels might use.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Cow parts - including hooves, bones, fat and innards - are used in everything from hand cream and antifreeze to poultry feed and gardening soils.

In the next tangled phase of the mad cow investigation, federal inspectors are concentrating on byproducts from the tainted Holstein, which might have gone to a half-dozen distributors in the Northwest, said Dalton Hobbs, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Now, it's the secondary parts, the raw material for soil, soaps and candles, that are being recalled.

While some people fear consumers could be infected by inhaling particles of fertilizer or other products containing the mutated protein responsible for mad cow disease, a bigger concern is stopping tainted byproducts from infecting animal feed, believed to be the main agent for spreading the disease.

But tracing all of the sick cow's parts to their final destination, including numerous possible incarnations in household products, has proved challenging.

``It's like the old Upton Sinclair line - 'We use everything but the squeal,''' Hobbs said. ``We have nearly 100 percent utilization of the animal. But when you have so many niche markets, it makes it incredibly challenging to trace where this one cow may have gone.''

A major renderer with Portland facilities said Friday it was recalling rendered material that might have been effected by a mad cow corpse processed there.

Los Angeles-based Baker Commodities Inc., announced Friday that it has voluntarily withheld 800 tons of cow byproduct processed in its Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., plants. The company, like other "renderers," takes what is left of the cow after it is slaughtered and boils it down into tallow, used for candles, lubricants and soaps, and bone meal used in fertilizer and animal feed.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determines that the material is tainted, the company's loss could total $200,000, spokesman Ray Kelly said.

"It's obviously a tragic thing for the whole beef industry, but it's definitely a sizable hit for us," he said.

The cow was traced to a dairy in Washington.

The dairy cow tentatively diagnosed with mad cow disease is a four-year-old Holstein from Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton.

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