E Coli Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark Law Firm : E. coli Blog

Researchers from Kansas State University have concluded that cattle that are fed distiller's grain, a byproduct of ethanol production, have an increased incidence of E. coli O157:H7.

T.G. Nagaraja, a professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State's College of Veterinary Medicine, and Jim Drouillard, a professor of animal sciences at Kansas State, conducted research to determine whether diet influences the number of bacteria in an animal's gut.

“Feeding cattle distiller's grain is a big economic advantage for ethanol plants," Nagaraja said. "We realize we can't tell cattle producers, 'Don't feed distiller's grain.' What we want to do is not only understand the reasons why 0157 increases, but also find a way to prevent that from happening."

 

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Yesterday, the USDA announced that it has awarded $5.5 million to researchers who are working to determine the risk factors and prevention measures for E. coli O157:H7 contamination in fresh produce.

USDA's Agricultural Research Service and Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service are providing the funding to ARS researcher Rob Mandrell and his collaborators at the University of California to continue their research in the Central Valley of California. Over the next three years ARS will contribute $5 million and CSREES will contribute $470,999. In 2006, CSREES awarded Mandrell and colleague Robert Atwill at University of California-Davis $1.2 million to do research in the Salinas Valley.

Mandrell will address where E. coli O157:H7 originates, how it survives on the plant, and what factors lead to an increase in produce-related outbreaks. Potential risk factors include animals, land practices, packing and processing processes and wildlife.

Additionally, the project will feature workshops and publications to educate the animal operators, natural resource managers and the public about animal diseases that can be transferred to humans, how animal waste can contaminate water sources, and beneficial management practices for maintaining and improving water runoff quality.
 

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Food Production Daily reports that researchers at Purdue University have developed a new system that analyzes scattered laser light to quickly identify bacteria for applications in medicine, food processing and homeland security at one-tenth the cost of conventional technologies.

The technique, called Bacteria Rapid Detection Using Optical Scattering Technology, works by shining a laser through a petri dish containing bacterial colonies growing in a nutrient medium.

The work was started by Arun Bhunia, a professor of food microbiology and Daniel Hirleman, head of Purdue's mechanical engineering school.

The machine bounces particles of light, called photons, off of a bacterial colony. The pattern of scattered light is projected onto a screen behind the petri dish. Individual bacterial colonies growing in a petri dish distort light passing through them, just as a lens changes light-wave patterns. The "light-scatter pattern" is recorded with a digital camera and analyzed with sophisticated software to identify the types of bacteria growing in the colonies.

The procedure identifies a bacterial colony by comparing an image of its scatter pattern against a template that contains 120 features described by Zernike polynomials. The reduced collection of numbers describes how well the colony fits the template, and then pattern recognition software is used to classify the bacteria.

The researchers used the new system to classify six species of listeria, only one of which is a dangerous food-borne pathogen for humans. The scientists used to system to accurately identify other types of bacterial colonies, including salmonella, vibrio, E. coli and bacillus.

The technology does not require complicated lab equipment. A system could be designed so that it wouldn't require someone with a doctoral degree to operate.

The researchers have filed a provisional patent for the data-processing technique, and a full patent application has been filed on the underlying light-scattering technology.

 

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A study has found that the food-contaminating bug E. coli -- which can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections and more severe illness in humans -- appears to be developing resistance to antibiotics called fluoroquinolones in chickens, reports Reuters.

They found that 30 of the human specimens and 30 of the chicken specimens were resistant to Cipro, a type of fluoroquinolone antibiotic.

The problem is arising largely because of antibiotic treatment of the animals, which forces the microbes to mutate and become resistant.

Since food-borne resistant E. coli can then be transmitted to humans, action to interrupt the transmission of resistant bacteria from animals to humans may become necessary. Researchers suggest that measures could include limiting antimicrobial use in food animals, adopting more hygienic food-processing and distribution practices, irradiating food, and improving kitchen hygiene.

They emphasize that even though the resistant organisms from humans and chickens were less virulent than antibiotic-susceptible human E. coli isolates, they are not benign. The resistant isolates are still capable of causing blood poisoning and acute urinary tract infections in humans.
 

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The May issue of the Journal of Food Science discussed the adequate cooking of meat in order to inactivate microbial pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella, particularly in ground meat products.

Consumers are being advised on appropriate temperatures to which meat products should be cooked, and to use a meat thermometer to ensure these temperatures are reached.

However, consumers are more likely to assess cooking status by the color of the meat or juice. This can be a dangerous method to gauge internal tempurature of meats, since several factors can artificially prolong the pink “uncooked” color in meat:

• high pH
• modified atmosphere packaging
• rapid thawing
• low fat content
• nitrite
• irradiation

Alternatively, meat can prematurely brown, where the interior of the product looks cooked but a microbiologically safe temperature has not been reached, such as:

• pale, soft exudative meats
• meats packaged under oxygenated conditions
• meats frozen in bulk
• meats thawed over long periods
• meats that have had salts or lean finely textured beef added

The article concludes that the color of cooked meat is not a good indicator of adequate cooking, and the use of a food thermometer is recommended.

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