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E. Coli?

December 9th, 2009 by Angelica

No one seems to know what should be done about E. Coli.

E. Coli, a bacterium found in cow meat, has been the subject of food-safety controversy for some time. While these bacteria could live in a cow’s digestive tract without making it sick, it could make humans ill if taken in large doses. Agencies such as Epitopix, a Minnesota company, and Bioniche Life Science in Canada, are producing vaccinations that decrease the chances of E. Coli bacteria by 75%. By injecting the formula into a cow, they are diminishing the risk of cattle bringing the bacteria into the slaughterhouse.

However, this vaccination reached a gray area in the boundaries between animal medicine and human health. Initially, there was a dispute between the Agriculture Department and the FDA, both claiming that the choice was not within their jurisdiction. Neither were accountable for animal vaccination under federal law. The Agriculture Department decided that it would consider the vaccination, with the condition that there had to be a 90% reduction rate in the cattle carrying the infection, as well as a 99.9% decrease in the bacteria being carried. This was a very unrealistic goal, and in the meantime people were getting sick. At long last, the Agriculture Department came to a final decision and allowed the farmers to give cows the vaccinations,

Although the vaccines appear to be the quickest and somewhat cheapest solution, what will it really do to our health in the long run? Wouldn’t it be safer to just stick to an old fashioned HACCP procedure, in which each individual cow would be tested for the bacteria and then turned to the slaughterhouse?

If you want to know more about cows, Nate posted a blog about meat in the food system the other day. Chef Anne also had an interesting take on meat in our school lunches. Check out what they had to say!

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2 Responses

James Sandstrom, DVM writes:
December 10th, 200910:47 amat

Sorry Angelica, your suggestion to check every individual cow would not help solve the problem, for several reasons:
1. Monitoring does not reduce the number of positive cows, or the level of E. coli O157.
2. Even positive cattle do not test positive every day. An individual can be positive on days 1, 3 and 5 and test negative on days 2, 4 and 6.
3. What would be done with the culture-positive cattle, that are rejected from slaughter? Would they be killed and buried? Or treated with antibiotics? Or returned to a quarantine herd of some kind? (None of these are good solutions!)
Using the natural immune system of the cattle through vaccination is part of an overall system to reduce E. coli O157 risk to people. It is friendly to animal welfare, the environment, and does not lead to antibiotic resistance or any residues in the meat.
Cassie writes:
December 10th, 20092:41 pmat

Thanks for writing James.
We agree that the issue is complex, and that there are no great solutions to dealing with E. coli infected cattle.
Where we differ in opinion is on how to approach the problem of infected meat.

Your company, Epitopix, believes the solution is with vaccines against the bacteria. This will most likely decrease the number of cows infected with E. coli and make processed beef safer.

Here at WOYP we are of the mind that adding technology to a problem does not solve the original issue. And the issue here is the unsanitary, unsafe, inhumane and unhealthy conditions of factory farming.

We need a change in our food system, not more technological fixes.