E. coli ground beef outbreaks highlighted by CDC
Over time, E. coli ground beef outbreaks have proven to be a significant factor in causing illnesses across large geographic areas.
The pattern held up in the most recent CDC Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance Report compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report covers the United States in 2007, the most recent year for which complete information is available.
Among the 18 multistate foodborne disease outbreaks (i.e., outbreaks in which exposure to the etiologic agent or agents occurred in more than one state), 10 were attributed to Salmonella and six to E. coli O157:H7.
Of the six multistate outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 infection, the vehicle for five was ground beef (117 illnesses) and the vehicle for one was commercially-processed frozen pepperoni pizzas (27 illnesses).
Of the outbreaks where a single food vehicle was identified as the cause, the pathogen-commodity pairs responsible for the most outbreak-related illnesses were norovirus in leafy vegetables (315 illnesses) and E. coli O157:H7 in beef (298 illnesses).
Currently in the U.S., there is an E. coli ground beef outbreak in California associated with frozen hamburger patties and other ground beef produced by Valley Meat Company, Modesto, California. A Valley Meat ground beef E. coli recall of 1 million pounds was announced in August 2010 after the California Department of Public Health identified a cluster of E. coli 0157:H7 illnesses.
Foodborne agents cause an estimated 76 million illnesses annually in the United States. The CDC report summarizes epidemiologic data for the 1,097 reported outbreaks occurring during 2007, which resulted in 21,244 cases of foodborne illness and 18 deaths. Among the 18 reported deaths, 11 were attributed to bacterial etiologies –five Salmonella, three Listeria monocytogenes, two E. coli O157:H7 and one Clostridium botulinum.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) caused 40 of the confirmed single-etiology outbreaks (15% of those attributed to bacteria), of which 39 were caused by serogroup O157. The 40 E. coli outbreaks compared to a mean of 28 per year for the 2002-2006 period.
