Jolley: Five Minutes With Scott Crain
10/26/2007 8:09:00 AMKilling off E. coli is the holy grail of the beef business. Oh, sure, there are other pathogens that can cause problems but when the industry uses the “P” word, they’re talking O157:H7. It was a bug that we all thought had been beaten down for good until mid-summer when Topps proved everyone was sadly and tragically mistaken.
So far this year, there have been 13 E. coli recalls ranging from just a few thousand pounds to one of the largest in the history of the meat business. It was a summer that shook the industry and everyone agreed that something had to be done immediately, if not sooner.
Most of the solutions were after the fact concepts. They were based on the idea that E. coli was almost assuredly present at the harvesting facility.
With the sudden reappearance of E. coli,The North American Meat Processing Association was one of the first to say the problem belongs to everyone from farm to fork and everyone in that chain had a responsibility - the rancher, the feedyard, the harvesting facility, even the home owner.
So, where were the solutions that looked at it as a wider problem? Scott Crain at VeriPrime said he knew how to do it but the numbers he was claiming were …well…unbelievable. 99.9999998% free of deadly pathogens? That’s a number harder to swallow than year-old road kill on a south Texas farm road.
But the reporter instinct got the better of me. “Keep an open mind,” I told myself and ask Crain a few pointed questions to see if he can defend the claim. Let him prove the claim is accurate or the utterings of a snake oil salesman. I think he made his point. Read on and let me know if you agree.
Q. First, let's get some facts about you. You're a veterinarian based in Kansas. Tell me about your work as a vet and how you got into that line of work.
A. I own and operate a veterinary feedyard consulting practice. When I started my practice in 1985, I found my earlier experience doing embryo transfer very helpful in spaying heifers. Spaying heifers led me to meeting E.C. Brookover Jr. and feedyard medicine.
Q. VeriPrime is described as an alliance. Who are the members of the alliance and what do they 'bring to the table?'
A. VeriPrime is a member-owned federation of cooperatives. Members include farmers, producers, ranchers, feedyards, processors, distributors, food retailers (such as restaurants and supermarkets) and foodservice companies. The federation covers the entire food chain.
The members are the key to the prevention system. Here’s how it works - Retailers subscribe to the VeriPrime Food Safety System paying a "food safety fee". VeriPrime pays all supply chain participants to implement the required food safety protocols. The fee recovers the cost of administration, marketing, development, and operation of the entire system.
Q. The big claim made by VeriPrime and one that's raised a lot of eyebrows is it can market meat that is '99.9999998% free of deadly pathogens.' That's a claim that borders on the unbelievable. The process seems to be a three-step combination of probiotics along with basic sanitation controls and meat inspection procedures. Break down each step and tell me what they add to the final claim of 99.9999998% free of pathogens.
A. The VeriPrime Prevention Protocols are a series of firewalls that prevent E. coli.
As predicted in the NCBA document - E. coli 0157 Solutions: The Pre-harvest Commitment - “Further research will develop science-based effective, economical interventions that fit into the current cattle production systems”.
Research did just that. Two new interventions are now available and are included in the series of firewalls. Here’s how the steps add up:
The first firewall is just common sense. Take care of our livestock. Keep them healthy and comfortable. This is the core of principle-based animal husbandry and should be included in every producer’s best practices.
The second firewall is to feed Active cultures with strains that demonstrate the ability to (1) reduce the number of cattle shedding E. coli by 30-60% and (2) reduce the amount of E. coli by 99.5% in the individuals that still have E. coli in the digestive tract.
The third firewall is to continue and improve sanitation procedures. Common sense protocols like; USDA oversight, HACCP, sanitation, and monitoring. USDA studies confirm the sanitation protocols will be effective 93% of the time..
The fourth firewall applies natural protective probiotics, like the ones in yogurt, directly to the meat which actively eliminates any remaining E. coli by 99.9%.
The firewall common to all the other firewalls is Certified Traceable Beef. VeriPrime will pay producers to get a premises number and keep proper records.
Q. The alliance says it is close to having enough members to offer such meat products in the near future once it reaches a "critical mass" of members. Can you put some hard numbers to the term 'critical mass' and what is the necessary equipment needed to get the system rolling?
A. Critical Mass means enough participation to trigger industry adoption. Three years ago, upon retail request, we did a campaign to sign up feedyard members. Retailers wanted to know how many feedyards would participate in a prevention program that paid them for products and services.
The program was called “Get Paid or Give it Away” and signed up 65% of the fed cattle volume. Today – with protocols in hand – our job is to bring on the necessary retail members.
As far as equipment - the vast majority of feedyards already handle supplements and probiotics with micro-machines or manually.
Q. Let's talk about the critics. Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist for the Consumers Union said, "They're talking (something like) eight orders of magnitude reduction? Please."
He said he had seen cases where assumed additive effects of two studies did not work out, and he suspected this might be the case this time.
On the other side of the argument, Mindy Brashears, assistant professor in the department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University, said the reduction in pathogens is reasonable based on the additive effects of lactic acid bacteria in various studies. I'm sure you agree with Brashears but what can you say to refute Hansen's statement?
A. No one is questioning the peer reviewed science of the multiple firewalls. Two of the firewalls, used by themselves, are proven to be over 99% effective. The outstanding issue is the magnitude of the additive effect. Put another way, how many nines should we add to the right of the decimal point. We can quibble about the number of "point nines", but the fact is, the industry can virtually eliminate e coli from beef.
Q. Andrew Murphy, chief operating officer of Innovative Livestock Services Inc., a feed lot operator in Kansas and Nebraska, feeds probiotics with the intention of lowering the amount of pathogenic bacteria in his cattle. How long has he been doing it? And does he have any hard data to support your claims?
A. Andrew said they have been feeding probiotics for 8 years. The original intent feeding probiotics was for performance response. They did see a response from the production side in more level consumption intakes and an improved dry matter conversion. Like every other feedyard in the country he said he depends upon independent research to tell him the effect on E coli.
Chuck Jolley
CRJolley@msn.com