E. coli strain traced to ranch near spinach fields

Well in a totally un-shocking chain of events, the now famous spinach e. coli bacteria was all but proven to be caused by animal agriculture. Yes, if it were not for the raising of animals destined to become food this could never have happened.


Read the whole article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/10/12/tainted.spinach.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- -- The same strain of deadly bacteria that sickened dozens of people nationwide has been found at a cattle ranch in California's Salinas Valley within a mile of spinach fields, investigators said Thursday.

"We do not have a smoking cow at this point," said Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the Prevention Services Division of the California Department of Health Services. Nevertheless, Reilly called the match an important finding.

Investigators still do not know how the feces could have contaminated the spinach implicated in the bacterial outbreak. They also do not know whether the ranch used manure from the cattle to fertilize its fields. Nor is there evidence that livestock entered the spinach fields on the ranch. However, wild pigs roamed the property, they said.

"There's lots of wildlife and lots of potential for breakdown in the fencing," Reilly told reporters.

The strain of pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 was found in three cattle fecal samples collected at the ranch, one of four under investigation, the officials said. It matched the strain found in sick patients and in bags of recalled spinach.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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Now do you think that they've found the root cause of the outbreak it will be broadcast on every media outlet like it was when it was first detected? No way in hell. If the same thing happened with beef, you would NEVER hear about this, it's freakin ridiculous. Thanks to my friend Chris for linking me this article.