[USCC] FW: Spinach, livestock

[Jim McNelly]

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>The great pig hunt
>09.nov.06
>LA City Beat - Los Angeles, CA
>Allison Milionis
>http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4593&IssueNum=179
>As details of the investigation into the E. coli 
>O157:H7 outbreak in spinach trickled out, the 
>question quickly changed from “how could this 
>have happened?” to “why doesn’t it happen all the time?”



>The story says that Central Valley fields are at 
>fairly high risk of infection. Surrounded by 
>livestock farms (where E. coli thrives) and 
>reservoirs that catch agricultural runoff, leafy 
>crops are susceptible to contamination from 
>irrigation water laden with all kinds of heavy 
>metals and toxic chemicals as well as pathogenic 
>microorganisms – E. coli being the most dangerous.
>Further, between the time spinach is harvested 
>to the moment it’s sealed in an airtight bag, 
>unwashed hands and unsanitary machinery provide 
>many opportunities for rogue E. coli bacteria to spread to spinach leaves.



>On October 12, nearly two weeks after announcing 
>the vegetable source of the E. coli outbreak, 
>the FDA and the State of California released 
>some results of their intensive field 
>investigation, implicating cow feces from a 
>ranch located within a mile of the spinach 
>field. (The name of the ranch has been 
>withheld.) According to their findings, samples 
>of the feces tested positive based on matching 
>genetic fingerprints for the same strain of E. coli in the outbreak.



>Days after announcing that the pathogen was 
>found at a neighboring cattle ranch, news 
>agencies were reporting that a feral pig killed 
>on the ranch tested positive for E. coli. As of 
>yet, no statement has been released from a 
>government agency confirming this, and it’s not 
>clear who shot the pig. However, the San Jose 
>Mercury printed a story quoting Kevin Reilly, 
>deputy director of the state Department of 
>Health Services, saying that pigs are “one clear 
>vehicle” that could explain how the E. coli 
>spread from cattle on the ranch to the spinach field.
>The finding conveniently moved suspicion from 
>the state’s cattle stock – which clearly do 
>carry the E. coli strain – and onto a wild pig, 
>which doesn’t cast doubt on the state’s meat supply.
>The story explains that California’s wild pigs 
>are descendants of both feral and domestic 
>European stock, can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, 
>and will eat just about anything. The animals 
>have long roamed the forests and fields of the Central Valley.



>Environmental, health, and animal advocates were 
>cited as arguing that industrialized 
>agricultural facilities, often referred to as 
>factory farms, are to blame. Critics have long 
>called on the government to enforce higher 
>standards of care and environmental 
>responsibility on these huge operations to 
>ameliorate their dense populations of animals. 
>But such calls often clash with agribusiness 
>corporations carrying serious political cachet.



>The Central Valley is the number-one milk 
>producing region in the nation. But its 900,000 
>dairy cows produce outrageous amounts of manure 
>that get into groundwater, rivers, agriculture 
>reservoirs, irrigation pipes, and drinking 
>water. Water managers in the Chino area blame 
>that region’s dairy farms for widely-
>reported contamination there – and the 
>subsequent migration of its dairy operations to other parts of the valley.
>It will be four years before scientists have 
>hard data on the Central Valley E. coli crisis.
>