Associations between the presence and magnitude of Escherichia coli O157 in feces at harvest and contamination of preintervention beef carcasses

To quantify associations at slaughter between Escherichia coli O157 carcass contamination, fecal-positive animals, and high-shedding animals within truckloads of finished cattle, we sampled up to 32 cattle from each of 50 truckloads arriving at a commercial abattoir in the Midwest United States during a 5-week summer period. Carcass swab samples collected preevisceration and fecal samples collected postevisceration were matched within animals and analyzed for the presence of E. coli O157, using enrichment, immunomagnetic separation, and plating on selective media (IMS). In addition, a direct plating procedure was performed on feces to identify high-shedding animals. E. coli O157 was isolated from 39 (2.6%) of 1,503 carcass samples in 15 (30%) truckloads, and 127 (8.5%) of 1,495 fecal samples in 37 (74%) truckloads. Fifty-five (3.7%) high-shedding animals were detected from 26 (52%) truckloads. Truckload high-shedder (Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient [r(s)] = 0.68), IMS-positive (r(s) = 0.48), and combined fecal (r(s) = 0.61) prevalence were significantly correlated with carcass prevalence. The probability of isolating E. coli O157 from a carcass was not significantly associated with the high-shedder or fecal IMS status of the animal from which the carcass was derived. However, the probability of carcass contamination was significantly associated with all truckload-level measures of fecal E. coli 0 157, particularly whether or not a high shedder was present within the truckload (odds ratio = 16.2; 95% confidence interval, 6.3-43.6). Our results suggest that high shedders within a truckload at slaughter could be a target for mitigation strategies to reduce the probability of preevisceration carcass contamination.