E. coli Spinach Outbreak Hard to Trace
Many Risk Factors, but No Clear Culprit in 2006 Outbreak
March 23, 2007 -- Exactly how E. coli got on fresh bagged spinach,
killed three people, and sickened 205 people in 26 states last fall remains a
The FDA and California's Department of Health Services (CDHS) today issued
their final report on their joint investigation of the E. coli outbreak
that temporarily took fresh spinach off shelves nationwide last fall.
The report highlights several possible risk factors for how the spinach got
tainted with E. coli 0157:H7. But it doesn't pinpoint precisely how the
spinach got contaminated.
"Very clearly, the problem is multifaceted," the FDA's David
Acheson, MD, said in a news conference.
Acheson is the chief medical officer for the FDA's Center for Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition.
"The in-depth report illustrates a number of areas which could have been
responsible for contributing to the problem," Acheson said.
Potential Risk Factors
Risk factors noted in the report include wildlife (including wild pigs) and
domestic animals (including a cattle ranch) near a spinach field linked to the
E. coli lives in animals' intestines and spreads through contaminated
Harvesting, shipment, and processing could also have played a role, notes
Kevin Reilly, DVM, MPVM, deputy director of preventive services for
California's Department of Health Services.
"Along the entire continuum, there was potential for contamination or
amplification of contamination," Reilly says, adding that no signs of
contamination were found at the processing plant.
"Clearly, product that was contaminated went through the processing
plant and any contamination that may have been there was not eliminated in the
processing," Reilly says.
"What relative roles each of these played, we don't know for sure,"
he says. "Unfortunately we were not there on the date of harvest and the
date of processing."
No produce is currently being grown on the field linked to the outbreak,
Call for Good Agricultural Practices
Good agricultural practices make the risk of such outbreaks "markedly
lower," but it doesn't rule out future outbreaks, Reilly says.
"Is it 100% preventative? No. Nothing is 100%," he says, calling for
good agricultural practices to be used "every day, on every farm."
A single breakdown in those practices could lead to another outbreak, Reilly
notes. He and Acheson also call for more scientific research to learn how E.
coli gets onto and survives on produce.