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Variable colonization of chickens perorally inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 and subsequent contamination of eggs

http://tinyurl.com/l5kwmm

Challenging 1-day-old White Leghorn chicks perorally with 2.6 x 10(1) to 2.6 x 10(5) Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacteria per chick resulted in cecal colonization at all levels.
Eggs from five hens that were fecal shedders of E. coli O157:H7 until the termination of the study (10 to 11 months) were assayed for E. coli O157:H7. The organism was isolated from the shells of 14 of 101 (13.9%) eggs but not from the yolks and whites. Considering that chicks can be readily colonized by small populations of E. coli O157:H7 and continue to be long-term shedders, it is possible that chickens and hen eggs can serve as vehicles of this human pathogen.

You should drop the word "cow" from your title. You have currently no
evidence to implicate cattle. It is much more likely to be birds (my
guess) or rodents. E. coli O157:H7 does not arise solely from cattle,
although from a bulk point of view, it is the most common source.

As far as quantity of foeces, my guess it is an amount measured in
handfuls, not milligrams. Thus my guess that birds are involved.
However, grain would attract rodents. I would be able to estimate
better if I knew the mass of the product lots directly implicated in
the outbreak. But if a "taste" (10 g?) were sufficient to deliver a
100+ CFU dose, then contamination is at the 10 CFU/g level or higher,
typical of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.

At the current time, when I am mostly ignorant of any details
concerning the outbreak, I would conjecture that some bulk
ingredient, such as flour or its grain, was exposed to long-term
harborages of birds or rodents who routinely defecated into the lot.
This would represent a long-term bad behavior on the part of some
supplier (such as a flour producer or grain elevator) who had drifted
into apathy concerning food wholesomeness. But this time the
birds/rodents were E. coli O157:H7 carriers, and the hygiene so bad
that a large-scale outbreak was generated. (Very similar to the
peanut butter outbreaks.)

Is this the fault of the consumer who failed to distrust all foods?
Or the unconscionable behavior of a supplier who lost all moral
principles concerning food safety? Who should know better? The
consumer or the supplier? A la NRA: "Food doesn't kill people, people do."

Outbreaks happen for causes, and the causes are typically crimes or
moral lapses on the part of producers.
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Robert A. LaBudde, PhD, PAS, Dpl. ACAFS e-mail: ral@lcfltd.com
Least Cost Formulations, Ltd. URL: http://lcfltd.com/
824 Timberlake Drive Tel: 757-467-0954
Virginia Beach, VA 23464-3239 Fax: 757-467-2947

"Vere scire est per causas scire"
================================================================

O157:H7 is getting wide dissemination in human populations, animals and water. But right now I am thinking water or sewage.

Certainly Nestle contracts with a variety of manufacturers for its ingredients and that those manufacturers are required to follow HAACP. While it is possible that anyone of the ingredient manufacturers could have had a lapse in sanitation and Nestle as well, it could have nothing to do with them at all. Ingredient(s) have become contaminated during transport. There have been instances where tanker trucks have not been properly sanitized between uses. If say raw milk was transported and then pastuerized eggs or milk, this would be how the (&*(*&()* gets into the cookie dough.

It's always something.

to quote Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes:

Another nostalgic part of childhood goes ptttthhhbbtttt.

Unfortunately in today's food supply there are a lot of vectors as to how something could become a problem....

Small farms who sell locally do not have these problems

Corporate Agriculture is the culprit
Are YOU ready to take on BIG AGRA?

Go to the source.

CODEX Alimentarius is coming so grow your own food like your grandparents did or eat the garbage that is sold in most "super" markets.

http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/publications/media-releases/2008/raw-ingredient-advice.htm

I wonder if it might have been contaminated flour?

Also, don't we have to accept that nothing is perfect and that a small number of people WILL get sick from time to time? That does not imply that we should let our guard down or not try to do everything possible to prevent contamination, but if people would make more of their own food (it doesn't take long to mix up a batch of cookies, for heaven's sake) we would have fewer problems related to transportation and storage at least. If it's the flour in this case, then we must just stop eating the raw dough.

Are only semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies implicated in the illnesses? Could other flavors such as peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar, double chocolate, white chocolate, etc. be involved? Those varieties could point to other suspect ingredients.

Sorry to go on and on. Very interesting comments and this should be an interesting case. I hope that no one else becomes ill.