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Search for source of E. coli spinach infections most thorough ever, but no clear answers yet
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 29 - 10 - 2006


Like lab technicians on a crime-scene
television drama, investigators have tracked a strain of
bacteria over thousands of miles (kilometers) _ from bagged
spinach in Midwestern refrigerators to the guts of a wild
pig in the hills of California's central coast, The Associated Press reported.
While they may never pinpoint the exact source of the
strain of E. coli blamed for killing three people and
sickening more than 200, they have come closer than ever
before. And experts say the investigation has yielded
valuable clues for preventing future outbreaks.
«We've completely overhauled the way we test and package
greens,» said Samantha Cabaluna, a spokeswoman for Natural
Selection Foods LLC, the company that packaged the tainted
spinach. «Regardless of the source or method of
contamination, we're better prepared to catch it.»
That is little solace to victims and their families.
«This was a long, convoluted story that took a long time
to unfold,» said Ken Costello, whose elderly mother-in-law
was among those who died.
The case started with scattered reports of people falling
sick. A 6-year-old boy in Wisconsin had bad cramps. A
12-year-old girl in Kentucky was hospitalized with
vomiting. An elderly woman died in Wisconsin.
Health officials began posting DNA profiles of the
responsible bacteria to a national database operated by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A pattern emerged: They were all caused by the same strain
of E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, a common and
ordinarily harmless intestinal bacteria, and bags of
spinach were found in victims' refrigerators.
Suspicion quickly focused on California's Salinas Valley,
which grows a large portion of the nation's fresh spinach
and had been cited in other E. coli outbreaks linked to
salad greens.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was alerted on Sept.
13, and within hours it had launched one of the most
extensive investigations in its history.
«We put more people and far more resources into this than
ever before,» said Jack Guzewich, director of emergency
coordination and response for the FDA's Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition.
By Sept. 14, the bacteria, identified as the O157:H7
strain of E. coli, had been blamed for 49 illnesses and one
death.
More than two dozen «food detectives» fanned out in the
quest to determine where the contamination had occurred
along the greens' journey from field to fork. They
collected spinach leaves from processing plants. They
frightened cows near fields of greens to induce defecation
and collect their manure. They dipped beakers into water
used to irrigate farms or wash the spinach.
Identification codes printed on the bags of leftover
spinach led detectives to their first breakthrough: they
had been packaged on Aug. 15 at a San Juan Bautista plant
operated by Natural Selection, one of the nation's biggest
purveyors of bagged salads. The company had already issued
a voluntary recall.
However, exhaustive testing of the plant's equipment and
water supply turned up none of the virulent strain of
bacteria, according to health officials and Natural
Selection.
Attention then turned to the fields. Using the company's
records, investigators traced the spinach packaged that day
to nine farms. Codes on more contaminated spinach packages
then narrowed the search to four fields, Cabaluna said.
By early October, the death toll had risen to three.
The FDA said the O157:H7 strain had been found in manure
on a cattle ranch within a mile (1.6 kilometers) of spinach
fields. Investigators combed the pastures, gathering more
samples, including wildlife and cattle feces.
Last week, health officials said six new samples from the
ranch tested positive for O157:H7.


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