PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Diez-Gonzalez, Francisco
AU  - Callaway, Todd R.
AU  - Kizoulis, Menas G.
AU  - Russell, James B.
TI  - Grain Feeding and the Dissemination of Acid-Resistant <em>Escherichia coli</em> from Cattle
AID  - 10.1126/science.281.5383.1666
DP  - 1998 Sep 11
TA  - Science
PG  - 1666--1668
VI  - 281
IP  - 5383
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/281/5383/1666.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/281/5383/1666.full
SO  - Science1998 Sep 11; 281
AB  - The gastric stomach of humans is a barrier to food-borne pathogens, but Escherichia coli can survive at pH 2.0 if it is grown under mildly acidic conditions. Cattle are a natural reservoir for pathogenic E. coli, and cattle fed mostly grain had lower colonic pH and more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed only hay. On the basis of numbers and survival after acid shock, cattle that were fed grain had 106-fold more acid-resistantE. coli than cattle fed hay, but a brief period of hay feeding decreased the acid-resistant count substantially.