“Perhaps both the animal and the produce got contaminated by a third party.” He raises the possibility that wild pigs, which are known carriers of E coli, could have contaminated both grazing land and growing fields. Clues, but not the exact route by which it happened.” Billy Gatlin, executive vice president for the California Cattlemen’s Association, argues that the case against cows is largely circumstantial: “E coli O157 exists in the environment absent of cattle.” Just because an animal in the vicinity tests positive for the bacteria doesn’t mean it caused the outbreak, he says. It’s frustrating, says Michele Jay-Russell, a leafy greens researcher and programme manager for the Western Center for Food Safety at the University of California Davis. Clues, but not the exact route by which the outbreak happened Michele Jay-Russell, UC Davis But, he says, “our investigations so far have not confirmed a definitive source or route(s) of contamination of the romaine fields”. The bacteria could have travelled from cow manure to the romaine any number of ways – through wind, water runoff, wildlife, farming equipment, vehicles, or irrigation water, according to a spokesperson for the FDA. They found other other strains of virulent E coli in water and soil nearby. The following year in Salinas they discovered a strain of E coli in a mixture of mud and manure on a cattle grate uphill from the romaine fields. After the 2018 E coli outbreak linked to romaine grown in Yuma, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators found the same strain of bacteria in an irrigation canal adjacent to a feedlot holding more than 100,000 head of cattle. Investigations into more recent outbreaks evoke a sense of déjà vu.
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