When it comes to the safety of the U.S. beef supply, everything
works out in the wash Ð the hide wash, that is. Scientists with
the Agricultural Research Service developed a hide-washing tool
that has significantly improved the safety of U.S. beef while
saving the beef industry millions of dollars each year. An
estimated 50 percent of U.S. feedlot-raised beef cattle undergo
the washing treatment, which has reduced the national incidence
of pathogenic Escherichia coli in ground beef samples by about
43 percent. The tool was developed by ARS scientists at the
Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center,
Neb. The research team included microbiologists Terry Arthur and
Joseph Bosilevac, food technologists Steven Shackelford and
Tommy Wheeler, and center director Mohammad Koohmaraie, formerly
with ARS. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimate that E. coli O157:H7 causes nearly 73,000 illnesses
every year in the United States. Following a 1993 outbreak, the
USMARC scientists