Grain feeding and the dissemination of acid-resistant Escherichia coli from cattle.

The gastric stomach of humans is a barrier to food-borne pathogens, but Escherichia coli can survive at pH 2.0 if it is grown under mildly acidic conditions. Cattle are a natural reservoir for pathogenic E. coli, and cattle fed mostly grain had lower colonic pH and more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed only hay. On the basis of numbers and survival after acid shock, cattle that were fed grain had 10(6)-fold more acid-resistant E. coli than cattle fed hay, but a brief period of hay feeding decreased the acid-resistant count substantially.