E. coli Blog - Surveillance & analysis on e. coli news & outbreaks

We have seen some good work in the past from Philip Brasher, who works out of the Washington, D.C. bureau for the Des Moines Register.  On Sunday, Brasher took on the Chino slaughterhouse scandal, which led to the largest recall of beef in U.S. history.

We found it compelling reading.  Brasher seems to hit the nail on the head with the reasoning that what is really at stake is trust in the USDA brand worldwide.   We have suspected the Chino scandal coming just as USDA was on the verge of getting US beef back into Japan and South Korea could not have occurred at a worst time.

Brasher found a top US food executive delivering just that message.  Larry Pope, chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods, is quoted in the Register story saying:

"Every time an incident like this happens, it hurts everybody in this room," he warned a conference of agribusiness leaders. Consumers "trust that USDA stamp a little bit less. When we go overseas they trust the United States a little bit less."

Brasher goes on to report that USDA has not yet gone public with results of nation-wide audit of beef plants that it ordered after last year's "rash of E coli related recalls."  Purpose of the audit was to what controls meat packers have in place to combat E coli.

Go here to read all of the Brasher story.

“The ban on non-ambulatory or ‘downer’ cattle is one of many steps in a robust system to produce safe beef, but it is not the only step taken to ensure the safety of the beef supply. The beef we eat is safe because there are multiple safety hurdles before it arrives at our grocery stores or restaurants.”

That was from the statement of the Denver-based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association after USDA announced that Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was recalling 143.3 million pounds of beef because the Chino slaughterhouse was routinely processing “downer” cattle.

Here’s how Wayne Pacelle, chief executive officer of the Humane Society, sees it:

"There's no ambiguity in our mind that this plant was accepting downers, abusing downers and slaughtering downers."

While some audit evidence was raising doubts, we have been living under a five year old ban on “downer” cattle getting into the human food supply. The cruel practices the Chino slaughterhouse was using to get around the ban should not be the primary concern.

Our primary concern is that “downer” cattle are in the human food supply through one of USDA’s award-winning plants. Bill Marler explains the problem this way:

“Why is this all important? Federal regulations call for keeping downer cows out of the food supply because they pose a higher risk of E. coli, salmonella contamination, or mad cow disease since they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak. Yummy!”

Network news is reporting that 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to America’s public schools. Unlike E. coli and salmonella, mad cow disease typically won’t show up for years.

The Secretary of Agriculture says chances anyone will get mad cow disease are “remote.”

However, he will be long gone before we find out if he was right or not.

Marler Clark filed two E. coli lawsuits against Organic Pastures on February 7, 2008. The lawsuits were filed in Fresno County Superior Court on behalf of two children who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) secondary to E. coli O157:H7 infection after consuming Organic Pastures raw milk.

The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) and California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) conducted an investigation into the E. coli outbreak in September of 2006. CDHS and CDFA identified six children who had become ill with either E. coli O157:H7 or HUS and learned that all six had consumed Organic Pastures raw milk or colostrum in the days before becoming ill.

While investigating the cause of the children’s illness, pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), or “genetic fingerprinting” confirmed that five of the six children were infected with the same strain of E. coli; the sixth did not test positive for E. coli but had HUS. An investigation at Organic Pastures led to the discovery that several cows were infected with E. coli O157:H7, although the strain was different from the outbreak strain. CDHS determined that unpasteurized dairy products from Organic Pastures were the likely source of the outbreak.

Eleven-year-old Lauren Herzog and 9-year-old Chris Martin both consumed raw milk produced by Organic Pastures in early September of 2006. Lauren became ill with symptoms of E. coli infection on September 6. Her illness subsequently developed into HUS, a life-threatening complication of E. coli infection that can cause kidney failure and central nervous system impairment, and she was hospitalized on September 8. Lauren suffered acute renal failure and required approximately two weeks of daily kidney dialysis. She remained hospitalized until October 18, 2006, when she was discharged with over $250,000 in medical bills.

Chris became ill with symptoms of E. coli infection on September 5, 2006 and he was hospitalized on September 7. Like Lauren, Chris suffered HUS. His condition worsened and he was transported by helicopter to a Children’s hospital and was placed in pediatric intensive care. Chris’ kidneys failed and he required weeks of daily dialysis, as well as multiple blood transfusions. He was placed on a ventilator as a result of impending congestive heart failure, and remained on the ventilator for five days, was briefly taken off the ventilator, and later returned for several more days. Chris suffered a number of seizures as a result of his HUS. He also developed high blood pressure and pancreatitis. Chris was discharged from the hospital on November 2, 2006, nearly two months after he was admitted, with over $450,000 in medical bills.

The e coli-tained lettuce that Taco Johns served to its customers in 2006 continues to be thrown about like a hot potato among those who were involved.   Taco Johns sued Bix Produce , Roma, Pacific Marketing and the Wegis Family Limited Partnership in federal court.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader yesterday (Jan. 31) reported that the St. Paul-based Bix Produce has asked a federal judge to dismiss it from the litigation. The A-L report said:

Bix’s motion to dismiss filed Wednesday describes the allegations publicly for the first time. It says the Taco John’s corporations are suing because they lost business due to “negative media publicity surrounding an E. coli outbreak at certain Taco John’s restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota.”

The suit asked that a jury award $5 million in damages.
Taco John’s dropped Bix as a supplier in 2006 after contaminated
lettuce showed up at restaurants in Albert Lea and Austin, Minn. and Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa.

You can get the A-L story here.