Cattleman Explains Beef With Oprah

The statement that “mad cow” disease could make “AIDS look like the common cold” was among the more outrageous things said on an “Oprah Winfrey” show about the beef industry, the son of a man suing the talk show host testified. Mike Engler, son of lead plaintiff Paul Engler and senior vice president of Cactus Feeders Inc., disputed a number of statements made on Winfrey’s show by Howard Lyman, a food safety activist. Winfrey and Lyman are being sued by a group of Texas cattlemen who say they lost money when cattle prices plunged after her April 16, 1996, show on “dangerous foods.”