An estimated 70 to 80 percent of healthy cattle herds in the United States at least sometimes carry the deadly E. coli with no ill effects, passing it to each other through their environment or by direct contact with each other.

Scientists, including the University of Idaho's Carolyn Hovde Bohach, recently reported they have learned how deadly E. coli bacteria sense the cattle gastrointestinal tract. The work may provide "an exciting alternative to diminish contamination of meat products and cross-contamination of produce crops because of cattle shedding this human pathogen," the scientists reported in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research focused on E coli O157:H7which can cause fatal illness when transmitted to people through produce or undercooked meat.

 Bill Loftus, from University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences describes the research: “Basically, what these researchers have worked out is how E. coli is able to colonize cattle, is able to get a foothold in them and persist. These researchers figured out the chemical signal that allows it to do that.”

 Disrupting that signal may prevent the deadly E. coli from taking up residence in cattle. The cattle work was conducted on the University of Idaho campus, where Dr. Carolyn Hovde Bohach's laboratory has developed expertise in working with the bacteria in its natural silent reservoir, cattle.