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November 11, 1999
Web posted at: 11:55 a.m. EST (1655 GMT)

	E. COLI:
Choose a link to learn more about the E. coli bacteria: What is it? Symptoms Associated foods Prevention Treatment People at risk Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention For more, launch our interactive guide to food poisoning.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A draft "white paper" circulating the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria may affect half of the cattle that are processed into ground beef, steaks and other cuts of meat. But a USDA official explained the report is based on new testing techniques, and may not mean that E. coli 0157:H7 is more prevalent in the grocery store.

"This isn't saying that hamburger is less safe than it was yesterday," said Thomas Billy, administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. "It's saying that we've gotten an important breakthrough in methodology that makes us better able to detect the organism."

E. coli 0157:H7 can cause serious illness, kidney failure and sometimes death in children and the elderly. It is destroyed by adequately cooking meats.

Scientists had estimated that 1 to 3 percent of cattle carried the bacteria, but the more sensitive testing in use since September found a much higher occurrence of the deadly E. coli strain.

"The prevalence could be much more common and as high as one in every two carcasses," Billy said.

	VIDEO
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen follows the beef food chain from cattle to supermarket. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Billy said agency scientists were still analyzing data, but decided to alert the industry about the unexpected preliminary results. The report may also prompt changes in how meatpackers test for E. coli.

The USDA currently has a "zero tolerance" policy for E. coli 0157:H7. If tests detect the pathogen in raw ground beef, that batch is considered adulterated and is usually destroyed. Companies can process the meat at high temperatures to kill the bacteria, then use it in cooked foods such as canned chili.

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Food Safety

An industry spokesman criticized the new USDA data as misleading.

"There is no evidence the prevalence of this organism has changed at all since we began studying it in the early 1990s," said Gary Weber of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

On the new testing method, Weber said it only reflects whether cattle have been exposed to the bacteria at some point in their lives - not that they are actually carrying it at the time of slaughter. Actual infection rates are less than one-half percent of cows, he said, based on testing by meat grinders and processors.

In cattle, E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria live in the digestive tract without causing any illness. But when the animals are slaughtered and skinned, the bacteria can be inadvertently transferred from internal organs to the meat intended for human consumption.

An estimated 73,480 people a year are infected with E. coli 0157:H7, and about 600 of those cases are fatal, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two people died from E. coli contamination traced to well water at a county fair in New York. Rain runoff is believed to have washed the bacteria from cow manure at a nearby cattle barn into the fair's underground water supply.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.