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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #99540
Title: GRAIN FEEDING AND ACID-RESISTANT ESCHERICHIA COLI

Author
item Russell, James
item DIEZ, FRANCISCO - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item JARVIS, GRAEME - CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Proceeding of Plains Nutrition Council Symposium
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/8/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Pathogenic Escherichia coli can pass from cattle to man via contaminated foods and water, but the human gastric stomach is a barrier to this transmission. Cattle fed grain have large numbers of acid-resistant E. coli, but cattle can be fed hay to reduce this potentially dangerous population. The use of hay (or possibly ruminally degradable starch) to decrease total E. coli numbers and the extreme acid resistance of E. coli is an indirect method of combating E. coli O157:H7. If the substrates available to E. coli are reduced and total E. coli numbers decline, one would also expect a decline in E. coli O157:H7. If the gut environment has a low concentration of undissociated volatile fatty acids and the extreme acid resistance of E. coli is not induced, one would expect E. coli O157:H7 to be more easily killed by human gastric juice. It should also be stressed that the manipulation of cattle diets to prevent grain-dependent increases in the numbers and acid-resistance of E. coli, one factor is onl one factor in the total risk assessment. It would not circumvent other food safety practices (sanitation, cooking, irradiation, etc).