Grain feeding and the dissemination of acid-resistant Escherichia coli from cattle

Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, Todd R. Callaway, Menas G. Kizoulis, James B. Russell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

309 Scopus citations

Abstract

The gastric stomach of humans is a barrier to food-borne pathogens, but Escherichia coli can survive at pH 2.0 if it is grown under mildly acidic conditions. Cattle are a natural reservoir for pathogenic E. coli, and cattle fed mostly grain had lower colonic pH and more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed only hay. On the basis of numbers and survival after acid shock, cattle that were fed grain had 105-fold more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed hay, but a brief period of hay feeding decreased the acid- resistant count substantially.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1666-1668
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume281
Issue number5383
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 11 1998
Externally publishedYes

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