North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

At 10:56 AM 12/12/2007, Gordon wrote:

> I, for one, fail to see how cows, turkeys, or even humans defecating 
> in an orchard would damage the fruit unless the fruit was allowed to 
> fall on the ground.  Even then they could be sanatarily washed off 
> so that no danger would exist.

That's the point - dropped apples.  There have been several oubreaks 
of hemorrhagic enterocolitis and HUS due to E.coli O157/H7, traced 
back to unpasteurized apple cider made from or including dropped 
apples that were picked up and pressed without being washed/brushed 
to remove surface contaminants.
I was fairly certain that in at least one of those(I was thinking it 
was a CT outbreak, back in the early '90s), they isolated O157/H7 
from some deer fecal pellets they collected in the orchard - but I 
can't find documentation in a quick Google search.
But, subsequent to those outbreaks, CDC has issued guidelines 
recommending that cider processors wash & brush dropped fruits, and 
some additional work has been done incorporating sodium benzoate into 
the wash/rinse water, as well.

Contaminated, damaged apples can support the growth of E.coli 
O157/H7, and fruit flies can carry it from contaminated wounds to 
uncontaminated wounds.
http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/65/1/1

Lucky