Eat Shit and Die

In this country alone there are 14,000-plus companies that produce more than 308 billion pounds of animal chow annually. FDA-approved ingredients include "dried poultry waste, a processed animal waste product composed primarily of feces from commercial poultry" (also offered with part or all of the urine removed), and "dried poultry litter, a processed combination of feces from commercial poultry together with litter that was present in the floor production." Excrement accounts for about 60 percent of "litter"; the rest comprises bedding, dirt, feathers, and other debris scooped from the floors of broiler sheds. A Virginia Tech professor of animal and poultry sciences has estimated that up to four billion pounds of poultry litter are fed to beef cattle each year.

Mitchell found an FDA registration form listing 26 categories of feeds — including one for "Recycled Animal Waste Products" — and sought information about the companies producing it, "assuming it would be public information — or obtainable by a Freedom of Information Act request." He was astonished when Shannon Jordre, a liaison between the FDA and the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), told him the agency would not release this data because "it had been classified as a homeland security issue."

New Times tried to contact Mr. Jordre for confirmation and to ask whether the classification is because of concern that what a terrorist puts into animal feed might make its way into humans — and if so, why would animal feed be allowed to contain shit? Jordre did not return our calls.

Two months ago, a 15-year-old girl from Pembroke Pines contracted E. coli O157:H7 after eating a hamburger made from ground beef purchased at a local Wal-Mart. E. coli is a fecal-based bacterial pathogen that colonizes the intestinal tract and can trigger severe and bloody diarrhea and painful abdominal cramps; in up to five percent of cases it can lead to temporary anemia, profuse bleeding, kidney failure, and even death. The girl's parents are suing the chain, claiming their daughter suffered nearly the worst of those consequences. Topps Meat Company, provider of the tainted meat, was one of the United States' largest producers of ground beef — until the subsequent recall of 21.7 million pounds of product caused it to shut down.

Also close to home: Last month Hialeah's Blue Ribbon Meats pulled 8,200 pounds of frozen ground beef because of potential E. coli contamination. The government classified this recall as Class 1, meaning "reasonable probability" that consuming the product would cause "serious, adverse health consequences or death." (The meat processor, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef of Kansas, is an affiliate of the Boca Raton private investment firm Sun Capital Partners.)

"There is substantial evidence that U.S. animal feeds are often contaminated with important human foodborne bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli, including E. coli O157:H7," says a report released this year by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and the University of Maryland.

Dr. Amy Sapkota, who coauthored the review, says "one of the large take-home messages is the lack of national surveillance systems that are set up and well funded by the federal government." Weighing her words, she emphasizes that only one study uncovered a connection between litter-laden feed and a strain of salmonella, but adds that the information for making such determinations isn't there. "It could be possible that there is an increased risk associated with these [fecal] feeding practices," she continues, "but we just don't have enough data to fully understand and calculate the threats."

But would Dr. Sapkota knowingly eat food derived from a manure-munching animal? "That's a good question." After a long pause, she advises that, regardless of whether she would or wouldn't, "people can personally reduce their risk of foodborne illness by properly cooking meats and trying to prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen."

Not all professionals are as well informed as Dr. Sapkota. When we asked Tania Rivera, assistant clinical professor in FIU's Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, what she thought about feeding waste-based feed to food-chain livestock, she bristled. "I have never heard of this and doubt that this is the likely case across the board. This is not the type of message I would like to comment on." Rivera's department is part of the Robert Stempel School of Public Health.

What we don't know can hurt us. The USDA calculates that during summer months, up to 50 percent of feedlot cattle carry E. coli, which translates to an average plant processing 150 to 200 infected cows every hour (though not all are strains of O157:H7, which is the killer).

Because meat gets shipped from stockyards all over the country and ground together in a single blending facility, one hamburger might contain bits and pieces of dozens, or even hundreds, of different cows — and a single infected animal can contaminate up to 32,000 pounds of ground beef, roughly four times the amount recalled by Blue Ribbon Meats in Hialeah.

Unlike most foodborne pathogens, which require the consumption of up to a million organisms to cause considerable illness, ingesting just five E. coli O157:H7 organisms in a bit of uncooked hamburger meat can prove lethal.