991153 USDA May Tighten E. Coli ControlsNovember 15, 1999Washington - The government may require meatpackers to do more testing for a deadly strain of bacteria because of research that indicates it's more prevalent in cattle than previously thought. That doesn't mean E. coli O157:H7 is more prevalent in the grocery store, but the research could give the Agriculture Department the legal justification to require packers to do more to detect and destroy the bacteria, said Thomas Billy, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. “It opens the door to additional testing and control measures,” he said in an interview Wednesday. Scientists had estimated that about 1% to 3% of cattle were infected with the organism, but USDA researchers using new and more sensitive technology are finding the occurrence is much higher. “This isn't saying that hamburger is less safe than it was yesterday. It's saying that we've gotten an important breakthrough in methodology that makes us better able to detect the organism,” Billy said. A draft “white paper” that the department is circulating said it was exploring whether further changes were needed in its E. coli policy and that any new rules would be based on the “best available science.” The department is currently waiting on results from tests that are being conducted at packing plants, Billy said. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said USDA is raising alarms before adequate research is done. “The prevalence (of E. coli) is very low and declining,” said Gary Weber, who oversees regulatory issues for the producers' group. The infection rate in beef being ground in packing plants is less than 0.05%, he said. Virtually all cattle carcasses are pasteurized with steam or washed with acid or hot water to kill the bacteria, said James H. Hodges, president of the American Meat Institute Foundation, a packers group. If approved by USDA, irradiation “will be another useful pathogen-fighting tool for some beef products,” he said. E. coli O157 can cause serious illness and sometimes death, especially in children and the elderly. Symptoms include chills and bloody diarrhea. The bacteria is destroyed by adequately cooking the meat. USDA rules allow “zero tolerance” for the bacteria. An estimated 73,480 people a year are infected with E. coli O157:H7, and about 600 of those cases are fatal, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two people died from E. coli contamination traced to well water at a county fair in New York. Rain runoff is believed to have washed the bacteria from cow manure at a nearby cattle barn into the fair's underground water supply.
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