What is E.coli O157:H7?

What Can Be Done About It?

The bacteria Escherichia coli was named for the Austrian doctor, Theodor von Escherich (1857-1911), who first isolated the genus of bacteria belonging to the family enterobacteriaceae, tribe Eschericheae. This bacteria is the common inhabitant of the intestinal tract of man and other animals. Because of its difficult name, it is usually referred to as E.coli.

We need this bacteria to breakdown cellulose and it assists in the absorption of vitamin K, the bloodclotting vitamin.

But not all forms are so helpful. E. coli O157:H7, which was first identified in 1982, is a particularly nasty version. It secretes a powerful poison, called a verotoxin, that binds to receptors on human kidney, brain and gut cells and kills them.

Not all people have the receptors, which explains why some people — and animals, including cattle — who get O157:H7 become very ill and some don't.

E.coli 0157:H7 is a mutant form of this bacteria found specifically in the intestinal tract of cattle. For the remainder of this article, and for simplicity's sake, it is this mutant form that will be referred to as E.coli.

According the United States Department of Agriculture, the muscle of cattle, which we eat as meat, is sterile. It is only after this meat comes in contact with the contents of the intestines or the feces of infected cattle does it become contaminated.

But where does E.coli come from? As of today this is a mystery that no one has been able to solve. It is thought that cattle subjected to stress are more likely to have E.coli. And cattle become more stressed when they are rounded up on the farms and ranches, herded into semi-trucks, and hauled to slaughter houses.

Because of these abnormally small enclosures, these cattle may defecate and urinate onto each other. Now their hides are covered with this filth as they are led to slaughter. In the slaughter houses, the cattle are stunned and hung from hooks on a conveyor line, where the first thing done is the removal of their hides. Occasionally these conveyor belts move in jerky motions causing swaying which may cause the contaminated hides to flap against the exposed meat of the animal carcass or that of a neighboring carcass. It takes only a very minute amount of contamination to infect the meat.

Sometimes an entire animal carcass falls unto the filthy floor of the slaughter house and it is hung back on the line with insufficient or even no cleaning whatsoever.

And sometimes during the cutting of the carcass, the intestines of the animal are accidentally sliced and their contents explode over the exposed meat.

But what about the meat inspectors, you ask? Unbelievable as it may seem, the meat inspection laws of this country where enacted in 1907 as holdovers from the 19th century. These laws only allowed the government meat inspectors the opportunity to look, smell, and touch the meat. There are absolutely no provisions to do microscopic testing! And regrettably no one can see, smell, or feel the E.coli bacteria.

In the summer of 1996 these laws were updated with the establishment of a scientific based method called HACCP, which called for mandatory microbial testing. This type of testing has been done for the astronaut program for thirty years! HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a long name that is pronounced HAS-sup. It basically requires the meat industry to use a science-based methodology to look at their processing procedure, and determine where there is a likelihood of contamination occurrence. From here, the processors need to remedy the situation. All this will be implemented with audit trails, as well as training for those individuals involved with this process.

The most common meat to be infected with E.coli bacteria is hamburger meat. This is because normally the hamburger you buy is made from the meat of up to 100 different head of cattle. Usually it is not the finest top quality animals that are ground up as hamburger, but old non-milk producing cows. This is especially true of hamburger meat fed to our children in school lunch programs. Because it only takes a microscopic amount of meat from one infected animal to contaminate an entire batch of meat and then this large batch of meat is divided and sent to stores and restaurants throughout a large geographic area.

Through DNA testing it was determined that the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger meat which killed six year-old Lauren Rudolph from Carlsbad, CA in December 1992, was the same Jack-in-the-Box hamburger meat which killed people in the State of Washington as well as Las Vegas, NV in January and February 1993.

Up until the late 1970's no one had any idea of what was causing this strange illness now known as E.coli poisoning or "the hamburger disease." In 1977 there was an outbreak which was traced to McDonald's hamburgers in Alberta, Canada. The symptoms were severe abdominal cramps, followed by bloody diarrhea. Some of the infected people came down with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which starts by shutting down a victim's kidneys and then attacking and shutting down just about every organ in the body. There is no cure for HUS, and it is very often fatal.

Canadian medical researchers were called in to track down this terrible illness. At first, the researchers suspected that it might be the reconstituted onions used on the hamburgers. But Dr. Mohammed Karmali eventually found the correlation between the hamburger meat, the E.coli, and the sickness. Today Dr. Karmali is the one of the most respected E.coli authorities in the world.

Since that noted Jack-in-the-Box outbreak in early 1993, there have been over 100 other outbreaks in this country. The USDA believes that the incidences of E.coli poisoning are increasing. Today HUS is the leading cause of kidney failure in children.

For some odd reason E.coli appears to affect primarily children and senior citizens. But that was no comfort to the family 13 year-old Eric Mueller of Oceanside, CA who died in November 1993 after eating a cheeseburger at a local fast food restaurant. And it was no comfort to 18 year-old Laura Day who was stricken after eating a hamburger while attending the University of Alabama shortly before Thanksgiving 1993. Laura spent 42 days in the hospital and like the Mueller family, her family spent over one-quarter million dollars for her treatment. Today Laura is again attending the University but her family is financially ruined. And the medical experts have no idea what kind of long term medical problems she will continue to suffer.

What's the answer? The best solution to the E.coli epidemic appears to be the updating of our antiquated meat inspection laws. The first step in this fight was completed in July 1996 when President Clinton signed legislation which requires the meat and poultry industry to implement science-based inspection, including microbial detection under HACCP. Also, attempts were made in congress to initiate legislation called the Family Food Protection Act (FFPA) which would have brought meat inspections laws even more up-to-date.

The types of reform present in The Family Food Protection Act will modernize the current inspection system and better protect the public health. The bill can be broken down into three sections: Pathogen Reduction; Farm-to-Table Protections; and Enforcement.

PATHOGEN REDUCTION

Pathogens are bacteria which cause disease in humans. The FFPA, calls for USDA to:

• Set standards for pathogens in meat based on the best scientific data.
• Require meat and poultry processors to microbially test their products before they reach consumers.
• Define acceptable standards as those protecting all consumers, including children and the elderly, not just the "average" consumer.
• Set definitions for pathogens as "adulterants" under the law meaning that they are then the governments responsibility to exclude from commerce wherever they are found

FARM-TO-TABLE PROTECTIONS

Current regulations focus only at slaughter and processing plants. The FFPA would require protection for the consumer from farm to table and permit USDA to:

• Trace contaminated meat to its source and thus develop animal husbandry practices that minimize the presence of harmful bacteria.
• Require slaughter and processing plants to utilize processing controls to prevent meat and poultry from becoming contaminated.
• Establish an Advisory Board to the Secretary of Inspection which would include consumers as well as industry.
• Assist states in developing and monitoring microbial standards programs in retail establishments to minimize bacterial contamination and more uniformly protect the public's health.

ENFORCEMENT

Current enforcement tools are inadequate and have led to consumers being told to control deadly bacteria at their tables. Parents of E.coli victims have been chastised for not knowing better than to feed their children hamburgers that aren't fully cooked. The FFPA has provisions to keep contaminated meat and poultry off supermarket shelves and away from consumers. The USDA will then have the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to public health threats by:

• Mandatory recall authority over contaminated meat and poultry products. Unbelievably, the current system only permits voluntary recall.
• Withdrawing Federal Inspection from plants that are repeat violators
• Mandating civil fines for meat and poultry plants that violate processing controls.
• Instituting whistleblower protection for private plant employees to protect their jobs when they report processing violations.

With this unified approach, our country will be start on the road to making the hamburger meat we feed our children safe to eat. It will once again allow for the exportation of our meat to countries that currently don't accept our meat because of our inspection system and their fear of contamination.

Some day, we will discover the cause and a cure for all pathogenic E.coli, but until that day, we must do all we can to protect our most precious resources, our children and our future.