Chicago ? It will take more than a single Holstein with mad cow disease to keep consumers like Ralph Flores from eating their beloved beef.

“It would take a major epidemic,” Flores said as he bought beef sausage at Paulina Market, a Chicago butcher shop where beef sales never faltered until a blast of winter weather hit the city this week.

More than two weeks since the emergence of the first case of mad cow in this country, prompting a widespread ban on U.S. beef overseas, the beef industry’s worst fears have not been realized. There’s been no evidence the disease has spread, and Americans have stood steadfast by their beloved beef.

Burger chains report no impact on sales and investors have returned to beef-related stocks after an initial selloff, even sending McDonald’s higher than it was before the mad cow news broke Dec. 23.

Consumer confidence in U.S. beef remains high and statistically unchanged from September, according to a survey conducted Dec. 29-30 by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.

Eighty-nine percent of the 1,001 nonvegetarian adults interviewed said they were confident U.S. beef was safe from mad cow disease and 75 percent said they were eating as much beef as a month earlier — the largest percentages in the seven years the tracking survey has been taken.