North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

E.coli O157/H7 is nothing to sneeze at - it's a highly-virulent 
strain, and ingestion of as few as 10 viable organisms can be 
potentially life-threatening.

That said, it is primarily an inhabitant of the gastrointestinal 
tract of ruminants(cattle, sheep, goats, deer) which are being 
maintained on a high-grain diet - as one would encounter in a feedlot 
or dairy situation.  Free-ranging wildlife and ruminants 
grazing/browsing forage materials do not have intestinal 
microenvironment that is hospitable toward allowing O157/H7 to be a 
major inhabitant.

The O157/H7 outbreak associated with CA spinach last year had a 
suggested link to feral swine - and O157/H7 has been show to be able 
to colonize and be shed from the GI tract of swine.  But, in that 
case, the swine were presumed to have picked up that strain feeding 
on a dairy farm, and then being the vector for carrying the isolate, 
which was first identified on a dairy farm a mile away, to the spinach fields.

Personally, I'd have few concerns about running hogs or turkeys 
through the orchard early in the season, but like Naomi, I guess I 
just live on - no, on second thought, over - the edge.  I'm just not 
worried about a little cow poop - at least not from MY cows.

For more general info on E.coli O157/H7 and livestock/wildlife, visit 
this page:
http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/O157DT104/O157DT104index.html

Lucky

Louis L. "Lucky" Pittman, Jr., DVM
Veterinary Pathologist/ Dept. Chairman
Murray St. Univ.-Breathitt Veterinary Ctr.
Hopkinsville, KY