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Re: [SANET-MG] no smoking cow?
Hi Lawrence,
Your composted manure will, no doubt, be free of E. coli 0157. However,
it is clear that healthy cattle frequently have E. coli in their
intestines which does not cause them to have diarrhea or have any
symptoms. E coli kills people but not cows because the human has a cell
surface receptor on the cells of the gut that allow the bacteria to
inject verotoxin into their cells, cows lack such those receptors. The
healthy cattle could pick up E coli 0157 from a visit from the vet or
from a neighbors car or truck.
The point here is that healthy cow manure can leak E coli 0157 into the
surface and groundwater. If you must farm for produce or fruit next door
to a cattle farm then you should consider yourself to be at risk for the
toxic bacteria and your farm operation could be in jeopardy. As I
pointed out the fresh poop patrol is no real help. You will need to test
the surface water near your property line if you can.
The tests should be inexpensive and if you find E coli in the water you
can send a lawyers letter to the cattle operator.There have been a
number of fruit and produce farmers who have been smashed by the
neighbors cow poop in the water.
There are a number of agencies that provide E coli 0157 tests for around
$25 but these normally have few days to finish the tests and
respond.Companies such as :http://www.pro-lab.com/products-ecoli.php
sell kits allowing you to do the tests, and they are very easy to do.
If you spot a cow lurking in your neighbors yard it is no reason to pick
up and move. However, if you have a large profitable produce or fruit
operation it is wise to know before the customers get really sick or
die. USDA or the state Ag department should really take up E coli 0157
testing near cattle farms next door to fruit or produce farms.
Hope my comments helped. sincerely, joe cummins
Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
jcummins wrote:
There seems to be a real effort to stop trying to pin the spinach
outbreak on organic food. However, it is clear that organic farmers
will have to steer clear of cows! It seems strange that fresh produce
was being produced near cattle operations, it is strangely mindless.
A number of outbreaks are associated with fruit and vegetable
production near cattle pastures along with the pollution of municipal
wells near cattle pastures.The latest outbreak seems to be
inexcusable? A fresh poop patrol on the field will not help as much
as a relatively quick and inexpensive ELISA test for E coli 0157
in the surface or irrigation water of the field. Farmers near cattle
operations should split the cost of the tests with the cattle operator.
Spinach contamination linked to cattle feces
2006/10/14
Los Angeles Times
I just had 8 - 8 cu.yd. dumptruck loads of cow straw manure delivered
for storage, weed removal, and future use.
This is manure from a large pasture where the owner has put successive
round hay bales under trees for his beef cattle to eat year round. The
cows eat nothing but grass, weeds and hay, never any grain and deposit
large quantities of manure
on the hay from the round bales that gets spread over the ground in
the area. As far as offsite N/biomass-compost sources is concerned,
this is as good as it gets, lots of clean N, biologically active,
already mixed with biomass for carbon, a single source of nitrogen and
humus, good stimulus for years of food and cover crop production and
soil improvement. I assume there will be no E coli 0157 in this manure
unless it comes from some source other than his cows.
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