People often think of E. Coli poisoning as a beef-eater's disease, but the outbreak linked to raw spinach is a tragic reminder that the bacteria often spread through animal droppings into produce growers' water, soil or fertilizer. Microbiologists Andrew Brabban and Betty Kutter want to kill the nasty bug at its source, in the intestines of livestock, using a virus that's a natural enemy of E. coli.
The researchers at Washington's Evergreen State College discovered it when their students were studying E. Coli in sheep at the USDA Food and Feed Safety Research Unit. "Every time they tried to infect the sheep with E. Coli, the sheep seemed to be within two days perfectly happy and they couldn't find the bacteria," says Brabban. "They had some natural resistance."
It turned out that the resistant sheep harbored a virus called a bacteriophage, or simply phage, that specifically preys on E. Coli ...
