Study: Wildlife not ridden with E. coli

SACRAMENTO, April 11 (UPI) -- Only a fraction of wildlife from California's Central Coast that were tested carried an E. coli strain found in a deadly outbreak, say state officials.

After the E. coli outbreak nearly three years ago in California spinach, farmers began shooting and poisoning wildlife in an effort to reduce risk to their fields, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Two years of testing by the state Department of Fish and Game, however, show "wildlife are not the Typhoid Marys some people think they are," said Terry Palmisano, a state biologist.

Of the feces collected from 866 birds and animals, only four samples -- slightly less than one half of 1 percent -- tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7, the strain that killed three people in 2006, Palmisano said, noting the infected animals were a feral pig, a coyote and two elk.

Animals tested included black-tailed deer, feral pigs, birds, rabbits, tule elk, squirrels, mice, skunks and coyotes, the Times reported

"You can't make the interpretation yet that there is not a problem with wildlife," said Robert Mandrell, a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "But so far the data don't indicate there is a major red flag here."