43 people have been sickened so far by undercooked ground beef supplied by a meatpacker in Green Bay sold to Supervalu, Aldi Inc., Kroger Co., and Sysco. A 1.1 million pound recall has been done for meat sold since November 2. The recall includes 24 states.

E. coli contaminated the municipal water supplys in Walkerton, Ontario in May when flooding washed cattle manure into the wells. It sickened 2,300 and killed 7.

E. coli is a bacteria that lives in the colon of all mammals, including humans, and many birds. It aids in digestion. But the 0157 strain makes humans sick. Symptoms include cramps and bloody diahrrea. One complication, HUS, affects the production of red blood cells and can be fatal; this affects mainly young children. The disease typically lasts 3 to 10 days and has no cure, though there is treatment for HUS.

Cattle that are carelessly slaughtered can have their intestines ripped open coating the meat with their contents. If not thoroughly washed off it stays with the meat in processing. Ground beef is made of meat scraps and fat. The bacteria gets mixed throughout in making the ground beef and stays on the containers used to make it to contaminate the next batch. The bacteria stays on the surface of whole cuts such as steaks and roasts.

Ground beef needs to be cooked to an interior temperature of 160 degrees F to kill the bacteria. Whole cuts need to have the surface be browned or it can be boiled. Knives and cutting surfaces need to be disinfected after each use.

E. coli is also a danger to vegetarians. Over the years the CDC has recorded infections from water, raw apple juice, lettuce, cole slaw, and melons. The problem is that many fields are fertilized with raw manure and irrigated with bacteria-contaminated water. E. coli can survive in manure for over two months.

Any vegetables that contact manured dirt coud get E. coli on their surfaces. Bacteria-containing dusts from these fields can be blown to fields that do not use manure. Any raw vegetable could be a danger. Think twice before buying raw cutup vegetables in the store or deli.

The safest thing is to wash raw vegetables in a disinfectant solution, such as a 1 to 10 dilution of bleach.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

Answers

Johnn:

In addition, a number of enteric bacteria can inhabit the intercellular spaces in plant tissue. Since they usually don't elicit a plant hypersensitive response, they can be quite happy. Under these conditions you can't wash them off. Of course, most organic growers know to compost the manure. Still, with so many new people entering the field, who knows?

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

The problem for organic growers is that their fields can be within the wind range of growers that use raw manure. Their dust could pollute the organic crops. You're right, there's a host of other disease causing little critters out there and the ones that can be intercellular are the greatest risk. Most folks who get the "24-hour flu" actually have food poisoning.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2000