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Feral in the Fields: Food Safety Risks from Wildlife
Managing low probability, high consequence hazards
By Michele Jay-Russell
Published in Food Safety News on September 19, 2011
Last month's announcement by the Oregon Health Authority confirmed that deer droppings were the source of E. coli O157:H7 contamination in strawberry fields linked to 15 human illnesses, including one death. These findings are not unprecedented because undercooked venison is a recognized vehicle of transmission for E. coli O157:H7. Indeed, the first outbreak of deer meat-associated E. coli O157:H7 was described in 1995 among Oregon residents.
Prior to the strawberry outbreak, free-roaming wild animals were investigated as a potential source of fresh produce contamination during several notable outbreaks. In 1996, deer intrusion into apple orchards in California with subsequent fecal contamination of dropped apples was identified as a possible contributing factor in a multi-state E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with unpasteurized apple juice.
In 2006, a nationwide outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 was traced to baby spinach grown on a single ranch in California, where a large population of feral pigs shared pasture with a grass-fed beef cattle herd; feces from cattle and feral pigs tested positive for the spinach outbreak strain. Two years later in Alaska, public health officials investigating a campylobacteriosis outbreak linked to raw peas found the outbreak strain in fecal material from a large population of sandhill cranes feeding in the pea fields.
These outbreaks illustrate the potential for wildlife to carry foodborne pathogens and cause illness through ingestion of contaminated fresh produce. However, how significant is this food safety risk?
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