To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Was Turkeys, now E.coli O157/H7
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:50:36 -0600
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.