OTTAWA - The U.S. discovery of the E. coli germ in a shipment of Canadian beef is an isolated incident and should not be the cause of any panic, Canadian industry and government officials said.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on it found the E. coli bacterium, which can cause food-borne illness, in a 40,000-pound (18,000 kg) shipment of ground beef from Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta. None of the meat reached the public, the department said.
The Lakeside plant, Canada's second largest beef packer, is a subsidiary of IBP Inc.
"I think this proves that the system can work," Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief told reporters. "This is one isolated incident and the Americans have not reported any other incident since then."
Testing would be done on each one of the next 15 loads that Lakeside exports, Vanclief said.
"The plant is obviously concerned and we're concerned, but I don't think there are any more steps to be taken," he said. "The system works."
The USDA discovery of the bacterium was the first time E. coli O 157:H7 was found in imported meat since the department began to test random samples in 1994, U.S. officials said.
"We have been able to identify and destroy all the lot that was affected. We feel that we have contained it," Dr. Ian Kirk, associate director for meat and poultry at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said.
Impetus for the tests was a 1993 outbreak of illness, blamed on undercooked hamburger, caused by the E. coli strain. Three children died and hundreds of people were sickened in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
U.S. concern about E. coli prompted a record meat recall last summer -- 25 million pounds of hamburger patties produced by a processing plant in Nebraska.
But Canadians and Americans would have no trouble if they cooked their ground beef well, Kirk said.
"We have to be very careful we don't overreact."
He said the Canadian industry was responsible for its own inspection, but that the the federal government oversaw the inspection process. New technology meant the inspection process was becoming more efficient, he added.
He said the government had added extra inspectors at the Lakeside plant, but so far they have seen "nothing particularly to alarm us."
Lakeside officials did not immediately return calls.
The bacterium showed up in meat that was produced at the end of the day and was not detected by the company's random testing, Vanclief said.
Canada exports about 2.2 million pounds (one million kg) of ground beef a year to the United States, its main export market for the meat.
Vanclief said he did not expect the incident to hurt Canada's reputation as an exporter of beef.
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