Wild pigs suspects in E. coli drama

Oct 30 2006

Investigators now believe wild pigs were possibly the source of a recent spinach E.coli outbreak in the USA and Canada that resulted in the death of three people and made over 200 people ill.

California's Salinas Valley grows much of the nation's fresh spinach and had been suspected in other E.coli outbreaks associated with salad greens.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was alerted about the outbreak on September 13, and within hours an extensive investigation was launched.

The investigators have since traced six new samples of the E.coli strain that match those of the tainted spinach on a ranch in California situated between Monterey and San Benito, in a search across the country for the source of the infection.

According to the California Department of Health Services, two of the samples came from a wild pig killed on the ranch, and the other four from cattle on the same ranch.

The pigs are thought to have spread the bacteria into the spinach fields through their droppings but how the bacteria ended up in the spinach farm remains unclear.

Dr. Kevin Reilly, from the California Department of Health Services, says torn fencing suggests that animals, wildlife and water were in close proximity to the field, and that wildlife had entered the spinach fields.

But he says they are still investigating if wild pigs were the ultimate means of contamination.

Investigations continue at three other ranches in the area where samples containing E.coli were found which do not match the ones found in the tainted spinach and officials are still considering water, fertilizer and other wildlife, including deer, as possible sources.

The FDA now says it is safe to eat raw spinach as no other incidents of illness have been reported for over a month.