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CAA steps up E. coli fight

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Published: December 7, 2000

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association is striking back at E.coli 0157:H7.

The association recently formed an E. coli industry management committee following a meeting of 130 people representing groups that included ranchers, researchers and retailers.

The committee is expected to recommend a series of controls for this deadly food- and water-borne infection.

“There are a number of ways we are developing tools to greatly reduce the prevalence of this pathogen,” said Dennis Laycraft, CCA executive vice-president.

“We take food safety and water quality very seriously.”

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The new committee wants to co-ordinate scientific information that is already available, including further research into probiotics, phages, food hygiene and the hazard analysis critical control points inspection system.

Education will also be a priority, particularly the safe handling of meat at home.

Any new information on controlling pathogens will be added to quality assurance program manuals.

The committee wants irradiation of ground beef approved next year. Irradition was approved in the United States last year.

The North American cattle industry has spent $15 million on research into this strain of bacteria, which is connected to hamburger disease. The Canadian industry has spent $2 million on feedlot, pasture and meat plant research.

“It is now known that cattle are a known reservoir of E. coli 0157:H7,” said Otto Radostits, of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.

Cattle pass it intermittently in their feces. While they are immune to its effects, it can lead to serious illness or death in humans.

The organism has been known since 1982 and is present in the gut of warm-blooded animals and birds.

When ingested by humans, the results can be bloody diarrhea, kidney damage or death. As few as five bacteria can cause illness. It appears to be more serious in cold climates.

“They’ve had a real problem with this in Scottish cattle herds,” Radostits said.

An outbreak in Scotland in 1997 killed 17 people.

About the author

Barbara Duckworth

Barbara Duckworth

Barbara Duckworth has covered many livestock shows and conferences across the continent since 1988. Duckworth had graduated from Lethbridge College’s journalism program in 1974, later earning a degree in communications from the University of Calgary. Duckworth won many awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Association, American Agricultural Editors Association, the North American Agricultural Journalists and the International Agriculture Journalists Association.

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