E Coli Outbreak in Europe - likely source is cattle

Atilathehun

Just when the cattle trade is getting on it's feet, there is the probability it's source will be traced back to cattle. That will do the beef consumption figures a power of good:(

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-03/e-coli-sleuths-may-be-led-to-smoking-cow-in-germ-source-hunt.html

E. Coli Sleuths May Be Led to ‘Smoking Cow’ in Germ Source Hunt

Germ sleuths searching for the origins of the bacteria causing a rare and potentially deadly kidney disease in Europe may find it in cows, not cucumbers.
Cattle are the main reservoir for E. coli, the family of bowel-dwelling bacteria from which the new bug comes, said Rowland Cobbold, a veterinary public health researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia. Besides being more virulent and lethal, the strain that emerged in Germany a month ago resists a dozen antibiotics, providing more clues about its origins, he said.
“The cucumber may be the lead back to the original ruminant that was the source,” Cobbold said in an interview from Gatton, Australia. “It’s almost entirely likely that it came from cattle at some point.”
Knowing where and how the germ entered the food chain will enable authorities to control the outbreak, which has infected thousands of people in Europe, killing as many as 17. Tests on cucumbers from Spain, previously thought to be the source of the outbreak, found they’re not responsible, the European Commission said on June 1.
“It’s now a priority to identify the source of the E. coli infection in order to put in place further measures to protect the population,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said yesterday.
Bloody Diarrhea

E. coli bacteria are commonly found in the human gastrointestinal tract, where they usually cause no harm. The German variant, known as O104, is a hybrid of strains carrying genes that can cause bloody diarrhea and a toxin that may lead to a complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome.
“There’s been a couple of cases of O104 strains before, but nothing as virulent as this,” Cobbold said. “As far as we can tell, it’s an entirely new strain.”
Outbreaks of bloody diarrhea caused by E. coli have usually been linked to contaminated meat, Cobbold said. In more recent outbreaks where fruit and vegetables were implicated, E. coli- contaminated manure or irrigation water were found to be the original source, he said.
“If this goes the same way as previous investigations, they’ll find the ‘smoking gun’ -- the ‘smoking tomato’ or the ‘smoking cucumber’,” Cobbold said. “They will then follow the production source back to the farm and they’ll work out the various contamination roots.”
‘Smoking Cow’

Most likely that will lead to the “smoking cow,” or at least a specific herd where the strain can be found, he said.
“It’s part of the story of emerging infectious diseases and the interaction of humans and animals,” Cobbold said.
The German strain also carries genes that make it resistant to a dozen antibiotics, including Sanofi and Abbott Laboratories (ABT)’ Claforan and other so-called third-generation cephalosporin medicines. It’s possible that antibiotic use, especially in livestock production, helped spawn the new O104 E. coli strain, Cobbold said.
“A question with the O104 outbreak is just how much antimicrobial resistance is an important issue,” he said. “If the bug has come from a country where there is poor antimicrobial regulation, particularly for the third-generation cephalosporins, that may be a contributing factor, that may well select for this bug. But it will have come from cattle either way.”
The pattern of drug resistance is a concern to investigators, said Winifred Kern, head of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine at the University Hospital in Freiburg, Germany, in an e-mailed statement. It “highlights the risks of spread of resistance across human and animal micro-organisms, which could be linked to inappropriate antibiotic use,” she said.
Resistance Rates

Rates of E. coli bacteria from patient specimens resistant to third-generation cephalosporins in Europe varied from 19 percent in Bulgaria and 17 percent in Italy to 1.8 percent in Iceland and 2.3 percent in Norway, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm said in a report in November.
Resistance to the medicine is an increasing problem in animals in the European Union, although there is insufficient data available to properly assess the risk, the European Medicines Agency said in a March 2009 report. Cephalosporins authorized for use in food-producing animals include Pfizer Inc. (PFE)’s Excede, it said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kristen Hallam at khallam@bloomberg.net; Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net

bogman_bass

Sure thats not news. everybody knows thats e-coli comes form livestock.

If organic cucumbers are to plame its only because they were fertilized with manure.

There could be a knock on effect but this is no BSE scare and should be a relitively sort term food scare. Its unfortunate that it came during a quiet news period.

LostCovey

bogman_bass wrote: »

Sure thats not news. everybody knows thats e-coli comes form livestock.

If organic cucumbers are to plame its only because they were fertilized with manure.

There could be a knock on effect but this is no BSE scare and should be a relitively sort term food scare. Its unfortunate that it came during a quiet news period.

Very true, & well said.

The only similarity with BSE is the involvement of the usual publicity seeking rent-a-quote mob.

LC

Corsendonk

bogman_bass wrote: »

Sure thats not news. everybody knows thats e-coli comes form livestock.

If organic cucumbers are to plame its only because they were fertilized with manure.

There could be a knock on effect but this is no BSE scare and should be a relitively sort term food scare. Its unfortunate that it came during a quiet news period.

Most cases of E.Coli in vegetables were actually not linked to the use of manure to fertilise the crop but actually contaminated by water sources used to irrigate the fields. Wild animals deficated in farm water resevoirs or in one case the field workers used the water resevoir as a toilet.