Are humans endangered if cattle dine on chicken manure?
August 23, 1997 Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) — As federal food safety inspectors search for the source of E. coli bacteria that contaminated ground beef from a Nebraska processing plant, a serious new threat to the U.S. beef supply is being overlooked, according to an upcoming article in U.S. News and World Report. Increasingly, American cattle farmers feed their herds chicken manure, which health officials warn could contain dangerous bacteria that ends up in ground meat eaten by humans, the magazine reports in its September 1 issue. The waste that is mixed with livestock feed is a less expensive alternative to using grains and hay. The practice is increasingly being used by cattle farmers in regions where there are large poultry operations — and thus a ready supply of cheap manure — such as California, the South and the mid-Atlantic states. The U.S. News article cites as an example Dardanelle, Arkansas, farmer Lamar Carter, who recently bought 745 tons
