Expert Lists Facts Surrounding E. coli Infections

MINNEAPOLIS ¯ Despite some recent claims to the contrary, a food safety researcher from the University of Minnesota says locally raised and processed cattle are no less likely to harbor E. coli pathogens than their counterparts raised in feedlots and processed commercially.

One such claim was made in a recent letter submitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune from a local restaurateur, citing conclusions from a 1998 study from Cornell University that cattle fed a diet of grass, not grain, had fewer E. coli, and that those bacteria surviving in the cattle feces would not survive in the human when eaten in undercooked meat, particularly hamburger.

Not true, counters Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, in a recent editorial in that same publication.

"This statement is based on a study of only three cows rotated on different diets and for which the researchers did not even test for E. coli O157:H7," Osterholm wrote. "Unfortunately, the author extrapolated these incredibly sparse results to the entire cattle industry. The Cornell study is uncorroborated in numerous published scientific papers from renowned research groups around the world."

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