USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will post on its Web site in the near future new draft compliance guidelines on known practices for reducing E. coli O157:H7 contamination in cattle prior to slaughtering.
These guidelines were made a priority by President Obama’s Food Safety Working Group and they will focus on the prevention of E. coli O157:H7 through reduced fecal shedding on the farm and during live animal holding before slaughter.
The new draft compliance guidelines also will address additional pre-harvest recommendations for controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry.
Both documents are priorities for the President’s Food Safety Working Group.
Escherichia Coli O157:H7 is a specific strain of E. coli that grows harmlessly in the hind guts of cattle and other animals, but is a dangerous human pathogen. The organism travels to meat in the slaughter process when feces flakes off hides or flow from a nicked intestine.
Estimates are imprecise but the best guess is that more than 70,000 people fall ill every year from E. coli bacterial infections, the largest source of which is contaminated ground beef. Of those, 2,000 get sick enough to be hospitalized. In extreme cases, victims can be paralyzed, or worse. Some 60 die.
In humans, the organism attacks blood cells, which leads to organ failure, especially kidney failure. In more than five percent of cases, E. coli infection leads to life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). The highest incidence of HUS E. coli is in children under 5 years of age.
If you or a loved one has developed E. coli symptoms, which including painful stomach cramping, extremely painful diarrhea that is often bloody, immediately contact a physician. The onset of HUS and TTP generally occur after the initial symptoms fade.
