• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Wild E-Coli Theory?

Mike

Well-known member
Found this article on "InfoPlease" and got me to wondering.

************************************************
Where Does It Come From?
E. coli lives in the intestines of cattle, chicken, deer, sheep, and pigs. Animals are just carriers—E. coli doesn't make them sick. The use of untreated animal manure as fertilizer is a common route of transmission for the bacterium.
E. coli can be spread by eating ground beef, unpasteurized juice or milk, alfalfa sprouts, or water. Person-to-person transmission can occur in places like day care centers, hospitals, and nursing homes, or anywhere people come into contact with fecal matter of an infected individual.

Unlike many infectious organisms, where it takes thousands or tens of thousands of organisms to cause disease, it only takes a few organisms, fewer than 200, for an E. coli infection to occur.
************************************************

Could the coincidence of high fertilizer costs, thus causing cattlemen to use more Chicken Litter as fertilizer lend itself to causing the unusally large numbers of E-Coli incidents?

I would say most chicken producers are at the same time cattle producers down here..............................
 

Tex

Well-known member
We do know that China has had some food safety issues because they fertilize their fields with human manure.

There is a natural breakdown of fecal material by bacteria of manure that occurs. It is the same process that happens with cattle manure in the fields, with chicken litter, and in your septic tank.

There are even some septic tank systems that are used where the ground does not absorb the waste in septic lines. These systems use a little motor that aerate the septic tank. The introduction of oxygen into the system allows the bacteria to break down the waste and it kills the anaerobic (without air) bacteria.

It is the natural process of what happens in a field of cow manure.

After the septic system does this, you can use the waste water to water your yard with safety.

The problem with ecoli is that if it gets in the upper intestinal tract, it can create all kinds of problems and make you sick. You already have it in your lower intestinal tract. You are encouraged to wash your hands after going to the bathroom for this reason.

The problem with meat and ecoli is that manure (feces) that has a lot of ecoli that is not broken down gets into the meat and then people may ingest it and get it into their upper tract where it causes problems.

This usually comes from the meat slaughtering plant where feces from the cattle comes into contact with the meat. If they are not careful about feces contamination and are lax in the slaughtering process where feces on the hide or the lower intestinal tract, infection can occur.

Ecoli is not necessarily a bad bug. It is probably beneficial in the lower intestinal tract. It is like the definition of a "weed" I learned in FFA a long time ago.

The definition of a weed is a plant out of place. Same thing with ecoli. It is only a problem if we let it get into our upper digestive tract before it is killed by natural processes.

Chicken litter should be left on a field for a little while before grazing just as any other manure especially if it is not composted to complete the bacterial breakdown just as any field spread with manure. It still might not hurt cattle like it does humans so I wouldn't go out there and eat the grass with freshly spread fields.

We absolutely know that ecoli comes from feces from "dirty" hands from people, or from the manure of slaughtered cattle. There is also a higher population of pathogenic ecoli in cattle fed high concentrates compared to grass fed. Ecoli could also come from untreated waste water where it hasn't been killed by natural processes.

I don't think chicken litter causes the ecoli to be more prevalent in cattle than any other manure. It is the manure on the food humans eat that is the problem as we get it in our upper intestinal tract where it causes problems.

Chicken litter can have other things in it that are problematic.
 

Latest posts

Top