Nebraska Cattlemen’s Group
Receives Update On E. Coli

ALLIANCE, Neb. —(AP)— A bacteria with a funny sounding name is no laughing matter to the beef industry.

As the Nebraska Cattlemen association met late last week to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the group's founding, beef producers packed a room to hear about the latest research on the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria.

An E. coli outbreak last year in ground beef from a Hudson Foods Co. plant in Columbus resulted in a recall of 25 million pounds of meat.

It was the largest such action in the history of the $31 billion beef industry, which still is fighting negative publicity from the recall.

E. coli and other food borne pathogens cause an estimated 9000 deaths and 33 million illnesses each year.

Darrell Nelson, dean of agricultural research at the University Nebraska-Lincoln, said the state will begin in July to use $1.25 million allocated by the Legislature this year to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents for research into E. coli.

Two committees, one comprised of scientists, the other of cattlemen and department heads from the university system, will work together to develop tests to try to find where the bacteria comes from and how to prevent it.

"We don't know much about it, how it lives, where it lives and how it's transmitted," Nelson said. And "there are some real questions about whether this organism can be completely eliminated or not."

The first tests will be done on cattle in state-owned facilities, Nelson said.

Researchers will study fecal matter, water, feed, hair samples from each animal in a pen and "swipe" culture samples from the floor of the pen to see if E.coli is present.

If E. coli is found, all the animals in the pen will be tested and a calf that has tested negative for the bacteria will be introduced to the pen for two weeks to see if it picks up the bacteria.

Later, the researchers plan to move the testing to private feedlots, which has caused concern among some cattlemen who fear a positive test might hurt their ability to sell their cattle.

"Confidentiality is going to be an issue here," Nelson said. "The feedlots will never be identified by name or location," but "it will allow us to know what percentage of pens in Nebraska ... are testing positive."

The findings from the Nebraska tests will be shared primarily with researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Washington State University, he said

"We think, in the end, we are going to develop intervention strategies that will help manage this organism," Nelson said.

Beef is big business in Nebraska, where cattle sales generate about $4 billion a year.

Nebraska, with about 6.5 million cattle, is the nation's second-leading beef producer, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Texas is first, with 14 million head.

The Beef Industry Food Safety Council, chaired by Nebraska rancher Chuck Schroeder, hopes to persuade Congress and other state governments to help fund an effort to stop the bacteria.

Dr. John Schmitz, head of UNL's Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, said he is confident that the Nebraska program will be high-quality.

"It's not a national effort, but it's certainly involving a lot of people at the national level" who are experts in the field, Schmitz said.