Detecting E. coli O157:H7 With Ropes?
According to a recent article of Ropin the Web (an Ablerta, Canada sponsored agriculture website), food safety scientists from Alberta have developed a method of detecting E. coli O157:H7 using simple rope in feedlot cattle.
All that is involved in the process is hanging a rope in feedlot pens the night before the cattle are slaughtered. Margaret McFall, a food safety division scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Food, was quoted in the article as saying:
"the ropes were used as sampling devices. When you put something strange in a pen, the animals are attracted to it and rub and chew on it, and the E. coli O157:H7 in their mouth can be transferred to the rope."
The story explained that to prove the ropes efficacy in detecting E. coli O157:H7, seven ropes were hung in each cattle pen with up to 300 cattle per pen. The next morning, the ropes were test for E. coli and compared to fecal and hide samples for accuracy.
According to the story, the ropes could be used to determine which cattle pens have the highest rates of E. coli, and then manage those pens differently so there is less of a problem. Alberta Agriculture and Food hopes that this will limit the amount of E. coli that is delivered to processing plants, thus limiting consumer exposure.
If this method is developed, it would be a very cheap and fast way of decreasing E. coli contamination.
Source: Ropes Used to Detect E. coli O157:H7 Bacteria in Feedlot Cattle. Agri-News, May 21, 2007.
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