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Several state health departments, CDC, and the United States 

Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service 

(USDA-FSIS) are investigating a multistate outbreak of _Escherichia 

a recall of 21.7 million pounds of frozen ground beef patties.



Health officials in several states who were investigating reports of 

_E. coli_ O157 illnesses found that many ill persons had consumed the 

same brand of frozen ground beef patties. Ground beef patties 

recovered from patients' homes were tested by state public health 

department and federal laboratories. Tests conducted by the New York 

State Wadsworth Center Laboratory and by a USDA-FSIS laboratory on 

opened and unopened packages of Topp's brand frozen ground beef 

patties yielded _E. coli_ O157 isolates with several different "DNA 

fingerprint" patterns.



Investigators compared the DNA fingerprint patterns of _E. coli_ O157 

strains found in ground beef with DNA fingerprint patterns of _E. 

coli_ O157 strains isolated from ill persons. As of 12 PM (ET), 2 Oct 

with PFGE patterns that match at least one of the patterns of _E. 

coli_ strains found in Topp's brand frozen ground beef patties.



Ill persons reside in 8 states [Connecticut (2), Florida (1), Indiana 

(1), Maine (1), New Jersey (6), New York (8), Ohio (1), and 

Pennsylvania (8)]. 17 (94 percent) of 18 patients with a detailed 

food history consumed ground beef. Three illnesses have confirmed 

associations with recalled products because the strain isolated from 

the person was also isolated from the meat in their home. The 1st 

reported illness began on 5 Jul 2007, and the last began on 11 Sep 

2007. Among 15 ill persons for whom hospitalization status is known, 

10 (67 percent) patients were hospitalized. One patient developed a 

type of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). No 

deaths have been reported. 12 (43 percent) patients are female. The 

ages of patients range from 3 to 77 years; 33 percent are between 15 

and 24 years old (only 14 percent of the US population is in this age group).



Consumers who have frozen ground beef patties should determine 

whether they have the recalled product and discard it or return it to 

the place of purchase. Each recalled package bears the establishment 

number "Est. 9748" inside the USDA mark of inspection and has a 

the recalled products can be found at 



Consumers who have questions about the recalled products can contact 

the Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (674-6854). Because 

any raw ground beef can contain disease-causing germs, CDC and 

USDA-FSIS encourage consumers to use good food safety practices and 



- Using a food thermometer is the only sure way of knowing whether 

your food has reached a high enough temperature to destroy bacteria.

- Ground beef products should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 F.

- To keep your food safe, remember to Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill.



Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (674-6854).



--



[DNA fingerprinting technology often utilizes restriction 

endonucleases, which are enzymes that lyze (break) DNA at highly 

specific and short nucleotide sequences. By breaking a DNA molecule 

at specific points and then looking at the sizes of the smaller 

segments of DNA produced, science can assess the similarity or even 

identity of 2 different DNA molecules. The larger the number of 

restriction endonucleases used in the comparison, the more 

significant pattern, if identical, produced.



As before, although food technology methodologies, including 

irradiation, can reduce the number of pathogens in the food, rational 

cooking techniques (getting the ground beef hot enough) and kitchen 

hygiene methods (avoiding contamination) are the penultimate weapons 

that consumers have at their disposal to prevent a food-borne 

infection such as this one. - Mod.LL]



20071001.3236

E. coli O157, ground beef - USA (NY) 20070725.2387

E. coli VTEC, prisoners - USA (CO) (02) 20070714.2263

E. coli O157, restaurant - USA (CA) (03) 20070410.1204

E. coli O157, restaurant - USA (CA) 20070403.1131

E. coli O157, bagged salad greens - USA (multistate) 20070121.0288

2006

----

E. coli O157 - USA (NJ, NY) 20061205.3425

E. coli O157 - USA (NJ) 20061203.3415

E. coli O157, unpasteurized milk - USA (OR, WA) (04) 20060121.0199]

...................................ll/msp/mpp