Venison breakfast sausage temp stall in MES 40.

Hey everyone, Yesterday I ground up about 25 lbs of venison and 10lbs of pork. I took 10lbs of the mix and stuffed some 21mm collagen casings with the breakfast sausage mix, let it hang for 2hrs then threw it in the smoker at 160 around midnight. I slept on the couch to keep an eye on my thermometer. The sausage climbed steady to 140 in the first few hrs as I dozed on and off. My thermometer has an alarm when the meat reaches the 152 mark I was after so I closed my eyes expecting to be awoke in not to long with the meat ready for a cold bath. When I woke up at 6:00 the alarm hadn't gone off and I worried the time had ran out on the smoker. I went out and everything was normal it's just that the temp stalled. I jacked up the temp to 200 to come out of the stall and the sausage was ready in no time at all. Member DaveOmak shared a good link with me last year when this same thing happened to me while smoking some Polish Sausage. The article explains very well why this phenomenon happens. The ? I have is the meat still safe after stalling at the 140 mark for 3-3/12hrs. I know they say to get it to 140 in a few hrs so it should be good. Does it matter that it stuck around that 140 for so long? Here is the link that Dave sent to me.


Thanks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/physicist-cracks-bbq-mystery_b_987719.html