Originally aired April
24, 1998
Bucking
the Bad Rap:
Beef Industry and Bacteriologists Take on  Ecoli
Reported
by Brad Penner, STATEWIDE
Correspondent
 Across America, these pictures
of a Nebraska hamburger plant became symbolic of contaminated meat.
Images of the former Hudson Foods plant were accompanied by words describing
the largest recall of meat in U.S. history, a recall forced by the discovery
of e-coli 0157:H7 in some of the hamburger patties produced at the Columbus
plant. The tainted meat tainted the image of an entire industry.
[Alan Janzen, cattle feeder] "We felt almost like we're
being treated unfairly in the beef safety issue because of the hysteria
that it generates in the media."
But Janzen and others in the beef business realized they had
to put their feelings aside.
[Chuck Schroeder, National Cattlemen's Beef Association] "There
is one unmistakable conclusion and that is that today's consumer and
tomorrow's consumer has become absolutely uncompromising in her demand
for safety in her food products. "
Chuck Schroeder heads up the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
He owns a cattle business with operations in Nebraska. Schroeder is
also leading a new group, the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, a group
formed after Governor Ben Nelson called together leaders of the beef
business last October.
[Schroeder] "Folks do recognize that if we don't solve
the problem, it won't just be an individual enterprise that's out of
business somewhere and indeed could take down the industry."
To prevent that, beef producers and processors are ready to
spend $20-30-million on education and research, research aimed at attacking
the harmful bacteria at the source.
[Dr. Andy Benson, UNL microbiologist] "This is a genetic
fingerprint, one of the techniques that we use of about 20-some odd
strains of e-coli 0157:H7. "
Andy Benson is part of a team at the University of Nebraska,
but he's not playing games. He's a microbiologist studying where and
how e-coli 0157:H7 lives. 
[Benson] "The most exciting part about doing basic research
is the ability to walk into your laboratory each day and to learn something
new that you didn't know the day before and the ability to use that
information to lead you to the next stage, to lead you to the next question
to answer. I think that's probably what keeps most scientists interested."
Mark Morrison studies the digestive system of cattle. He'd
like to learn more about the kinds of bacteria that live there, including
different kinds of e-coli. By doing that, he may be able to learn how
to prevent them from living there.
[Dr. Mark Morrison, UNL Animal Science Department] "In
other words, we need to know where they are in the system so that the
inhibitory factors if they are identified and effective are probably
targeted towards the bacterium so that they can be most effective."
Rod Moxley is a pathologist who has been working on e-coli
research for more than 10 years. He recently studied tests to detect
it in cattle on the farm. He'd like to learn more about where the bacteria
comes from before it enters cattle.
[Dr. Rod Moxley, pathologist] "What we would want to
do would be to actually see whether or not the organism is present in
the food supply, in the water, in the animals, in the soil, on their
hides." 
Moxley says that by working together, researchers at UNL will
work better.
[Moxley] "Just like in business you have people that
have all kinds of backgrounds that work different jobs to make a product.
In this case our product would be an answer, and the answers are going
to be best obtained by people doing what they know best and hopefully
putting it together."
[Benson] "We sort of have in our minds some short term
goals, some mid- range goals, and some real long term goals. I think
with the short term goals and approaches that would be taken by some
of the folks here on campus that we would have an impact very soon,
within, you know, maybe a couple of years."
Benson says the results will likely be seen first on the farm
and the feedlot. Those are new frontiers for e-coli research. In the
past, most research has focused on stopping bacteria at the packing
plant. Now those in the beef business believe they need to reduce or
eliminate 0157:H7 before cattle are slaughtered.
[Janzen] "I think if you look at it from my standpoint
as a producer, I would love to be able to guarantee that every steer
and/or fed heifer that we loaded out of this facility was e-coli 0157:H7
free. And If there are techniques that I can do to get as close to that
as possible, I want to do them."
But as much as beef producers want answers, they also are
cautious about using their cattle for research.
[Benson] "From the producers' perspective, they're not
excited -- overly excited, shall we say, about microbiologists coming
in to study e-coli in their herds although that's -- they're becoming
more open to that now." 
[Janzen] "And we see what it's done to some plants here
in Nebraska, the devastating economic affects that it has and so you
see producers reluctant to have -- participate in testing programs because
of that fear of what that can do to your operation, would it cause a
quarantine of your entire facility." 
[Schroeder] "So we've got to have a framework out there
that encourages people to engage in research, to use their operations
as natural laboratories for examining these problems and encouraging
them to make discoveries, advance knowledge and contribute to solutions
rather than saying we coerce you to engage in this research, and by
the way if you're unlikely enough for us to have found something, we
will put you out of business in our service to the public. That's nonsense.
And we have to wrestle with those issues."
Every cattle producer does things a little differently. Feedlots
use different mixtures of feed, different ways of giving the cattle
water. If more producers cooperate, researchers have more information
to work with. Using sophisticated equipment, Andy Benson can find differences
between several strains of e-coli 0157:H7.
[Benson] "Differences that may correlate with persistence
in a given herd. We have a lot of the tools now that we can use to address
this problem effectively and now's the time to do it."
So how could the lab work transfer to the feedlot? Benson
says it may help them discover things that producers can do to reduce
the risk of contamination in their herds.
[Janzen] "In my opinion that would be the best case scenario
if we can find some feeding level practices at the feedlot level that
will allow us to control that level of 0157 in the cattle that we're
introducing to slaughter."
Andy Benson says that if research is stepped up, they could
probably find some practical steps for producers to take within the
next couple of years. But at the same time, he says it's important to
work on projects with a long term focus.
[Benson] "I think to simply look for rapid solutions
to the 0157 problem is short sided. This is an opportunity that we have
here in the state of Nebraska to become leaders in this area. If we
have the personnel here on campus certainly that are capable of doing
it and if we have the facilities and the resources to do it, then I
think by all means this is an opportunity for us to do just that."
Cattlemen like Alan Janzen are hoping new research will prevent
future problems with dangerous bacteria.
[Janzen] "So if there are specific systems on the farm
that work for 0157:H7, more than likely they will help or work for other
pathogenic bacteria, and by finding out and discovering how to develop
those systems, we also have that blueprint to go back and address other
individuals at all levels."
Nebraska's e-coli team is prepared to step up it's search
for solutions. They're just waiting for more money.
[Benson] "It would certainly allow us to expand our programs,
you know, maybe double or even triple the current effort that we have
in addressing this problem."
[Moxley] "We are pretty much handcuffed until we do have
available funds."
The Nebraska legislature approved spending a quarter of a
million dollars per year for the next five years on beef safety research,
but that alone isn't enough.
[Moxley] "People need to understand that these studies
are extremely expensive." 
And so, those in the beef business will spend millions to
solve the mystery of tainted meat, and set new standards for safety
that everyone can live with. All of this time, money, and effort to
stop a bacteria that can be killed by the consumer, if the beef is properly
cooked. A bacteria that the USDA found in just 10 out of 17,000 samples
during a three-year study. It may seem like overkill but...
[Schroeder] "As an industry we recognize if there's one
case, if there's one occurrence, we have a problem. We don't want to
be in the business of selling product that causes any consumer a problem
and we have come to recognize in this exercise that there's no future
in simply trying to lay blame. We indeed are all going to have to work
together to try to solve the problem."
Captioning
by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.
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