Disease Proof

The spinach-E. coli debacle rages on. Amanda Gardner of HealthDay News reports cattle fecal matter from a ranch in the Salinas Valley has tested positive for E. coli bacteria. The same strain that caused three deaths and sickened 199 people:

It's not certain that the ranch was the source of the outbreak, but it's an important lead in the continuing investigation, U.S. and California health officials said during a Thursday evening teleconference.


"We do not have a 'smoking cow' at this point," said Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the prevention services division for the California Department of Health Services. "We do not have a definitive cause-and-effect, but we do have an important finding."

Smoking Cow, isn’t that a rock band? Even though officials aren’t ready to label this location as the point of origin, Gardner does point out that contaminated fecal samples were found only a mile (and some areas less than mile) from the produce fields—and there a many possibilities as how the spinach was exposed, including wandering livestock, substandard worker hygiene, irrigation practices or even wild boar.