E Coli Outbreak Possibly Linked to Cow Manure
California officials are investigating the possibility that the recent E Coli outbreak might be caused by contamination from bateria in cow manure. The same strain of deadly E Coli that sickened dozens of people nationwide has been found at a cattle ranch in California's Salinas Valley. This ranch is within a mile of spinach fields. Contaminated spinach killed three people and sickened nearly 200 in nearly one half of the states in the country. It was the 20th such E Coli outbreak in lettuce or spinach in a little more than a decade. The produce company that processed and packaged the spinach at the center of the outbreak investigation, Natural Selection Foods LLC, has repeatedly asserted its factories are blameless and pointed to the fields where the greens are grown as the potential source of the problem. E Coli O157:H7, the deadly bateria strain that causes sickness and death for those with compromised immune systems, is a leading cause of foodborne illness.