Food & Recipes

SALINAS VALLEY (BCN / AP) ― Feral pigs may provide the crucial connection between spinach and a specific strain of E. coli bacteria that has been linked to three deaths and sickened almost 200 people nationwide who consumed fresh spinach from the Salinas Valley, a state health official said Friday.

Just a day earlier, state and federal officials announced "a significant finding,'' that three samples of cow manure from an unidentified ranch in the Salinas Valley had tested positive for the deadly strain of E. coli.

Health officials are now doing follow-up work to determine how the bacteria traveled the one-half mile or more from the cow pasture to the spinach fields.

California Department of Health Services Deputy Director Kevin Reilly said the pigs are one area the investigation is focusing on.

"We found evidence where wild pigs have broken fencing to access irrigation areas, reservoirs,'' said Reilly, suggesting it's possible that the E. coli could have traveled on the feral pigs run amok.

"There is lots of evidence for pigs damaging fenced off areas ... rooting, knocking fences down,'' he said.

However, much more investigation needs to be done before health officials will know exactly how the E. coli traveled from the dung to the plants.

"This is not a definitive cause and effect finding,'' Reilly said. "We need to be much more conclusive.''

While the food industry is optimistic the finding can help prevent future outbreaks, many experts cautioned that problems will continue to arise in a region where the hills harbor cattle, salad greens grow year-round and wild animals have access to fields.

"All the potential sources and modes of contamination that were in play before continue to be in play," said Matt Byrne, executive vice president of the California Cattlemen's Association. So, it may be hard to develop precise measures for preventing future problems.

Ranchers were taking steps to keep livestock droppings from infecting produce long before the recent outbreak, Byrne said. These include designating watering holes for cattle so they don't drink from creeks that flow through farms and creating "buffer zones" that keep the animals away from water that could later be used to irrigate crops.

"As producers of food and as consumers ourselves, the beef industry is very concerned about the safety of the food supply," Byrne said. "Our responsibility doesn't necessarily end at the fence line."

E. coli typically comes from human and animal waste. The evidence so far indicates the spinach farmer, who also has not been identified, didn't adhere to voluntary guidelines for vegetables meant to be consumed raw, said Reilly.

While it's not uncommon for cattle to graze near fields of vegetables in the intensely cultivated valley, this field was "frankly, surrounded by pasture," Reilly said.

But Doug Powell, scientific director of the Food Safety Network at Kansas State University, says the size of the outbreak points to flood waters rather than animals being the carrier. If that's the case, then it could have been prevented by proper water quality testing, he said.

Either way, keeping livestock away from spinach and lettuce seems the best way to prevent future outbreaks, said Joseph Pezzini, vice president of operations for Ocean Mist Farms in nearby Castroville.

"That interface is something that needs to be looked at more closely," he said. "How compatible are they, and for them to be compatible, how do you operate safely from both ends?"

But many experts cautioned against focusing exclusively on the coexistence of cattle and vegetables.

"It would be a mistake to think that all outbreaks were a result of this kind of proximity," said Trevor Suslow, a research in the plant sciences department at the University of California, Davis. "It's an important finding, but that isn't the end of the story. There are other sources for the pathogen to arrive at the product."

These can include bird droppings and sewage leaks.

Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer representing 93 people who got sick eating spinach and the families of two who died, said processors and packagers of greens are also responsible for ensuring their safety.

Still, the company linked to the outbreak said this week's announcement proves its packaging plant was not the source of the E. coli.

"This definitely reinforces our belief that the source was environmental," said Samantha Cabaluna, spokeswoman for Natural Selection Foods LLC.

Bagged spinach found in the refrigerators of several victims were traced to a batch processed at the San Juan Bautista plant of Natural Selection, which packages spinach under 34 brand names including Dole, the brand eaten by many of the sickened people.

"From a victim's perspective, Dole, Natural Selection and this farm are on the hook," Marler said. "It's their collective responsibility to step up and deal with these claims."

Based on the industry's response to past outbreaks, Powell said he was not optimistic the discovery would result in a major overhaul of how greens are grown and packaged. Farmers and processors already know what they need to do to keep produce safe, but they don't always do it.

"If they didn't learn in the previous eight outbreaks what makes you think they will learn this time?" he said. "Somebody missed something. And what this points to is they need to get some people who really know farm food safety because they should have been able to predict this."

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)