The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) recently released some preliminary data on E. coli and Salmonella in beef in the United States. As those of you who follow food safety know, the last 20 years or so (especially since 1993’s Jack-In-The-Box outbreak) have seen increased efforts to directly control pathogens and a move to mandatory use of HACCP. This “tough-on-pathogens” line of action should, ideally, reduce pathogenic contamination of food, no?

CDC also tracked more E. coli outbreaks from 2003-2012 than in the previous 20 years… rates of Salmonella infection have remained steady for the past 15 years.

– Food Safety News

Not so, according to the CDC. Rates of Salmonella infections have remained largely flat over two decades, while there have been more recorded E. coli outbreaks since 2003 than ever before. The tough-on-pathogen mentality has not led to meaningful decreases in infections. 

What is also notable about the report from the CDC is that the types of beef cuts implicated in infection have shifted over the decades. _Salmonella _found solace nestled in beef roasts during the 1970s, but now is predominantly found in the crevices of ground beef (E. coli has largely remained a ground-beef pathogen). So what sickens us is changing.

There is also the issue of antimicrobial resistant salmonella which has triggered rather intense debate recently. The Centre For Science in the Public Interest, for example, has called for resistant Salmonella, which they see as a largely human-created phenomenon resulting from the use of antibiotics in livestock animals to be classified as an adulterant (like E. coli has been since 1994). Concern over resistant strains has grown in part because antimicrobial resistant Salmonella demonstrate greater virulence and the number of cases involving resistant _Salmonella _have increased and is a “growing problem“. 

The ongoing and shifting pathogen landscape suggests that perhaps an emphasis on “controls” for existing production practices are not enough and that the practices themselves need to be evaluated for their contribution to the problem. The use of prophylactic antibiotics could be one such practice that needs review, along with the associated practices that have contributed to prophylactic antibiotic use such as the reliance on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and corn-feeding of beef (rather than grass). Sometimes things need to be shaken up a bit rather than just bandaged.