Kim Skinner feeds some of the calves used in his study on the relationship between a strong immune system and safer meat. (MSU photo by Erin Raley).

The road to insight can lead through a feed yard, according to researchers at Montana State University.

Kim Skinner, for example, is studying the relationship between a strong immune system in calves and safer meat in the grocery store. The approach is a new one in the fight against E. coli.

As he explained his research this fall, Skinner walked through the livestock yards at MSU's farm in Bozeman and warned against stepping in the substance that might politely be called cattle scat. He walked past a few cows that have had a permanent opening in their sides for about 10 years. Researchers use the cows to examine the contents of their rumen, the largest compartment in their stomachs. The hole is usually plugged and doesn't bother the animals. But the rumen produces a powerful odor, even to someone like Skinner, a master's degree student in ruminant nutrition. Skinner grew up on a ranch near Hall and interned for a semester at a couple of cattle operations in Australia.

Fortunately for Skinner, he used 24 intact heifers for his study into the connection between nutrition and E. coli. Newly weaned, the calves came from MSU's Red Bluff Research Ranch west of Bozeman. They wore magnetic keys around their neck and lifted their heads so the keys swung against the doors that keep them from their feed. To open the doors, they simply pushed forward after the key opens the lock. Half of the calves ate regular feed. The other half ate feed that had been fortified with extra minerals and vitamins.

The point was to find out if scientists could produce safer meat by enhancing nutrition and boosting the calves' immune system, Skinner said. The goal is to find a way to protect people from E. coli 0157:H7 that can contaminate meat and cause consumers to become sick. Most E. coli is shed through animal feces.

Focusing on early nutrition is a different approach from traditional efforts that concentrate on sanitation in packing plants to reduce the rate of E. coli shedding, said John Paterson, Skinner's advisor and the MSU Extension Beef Specialist. Experts usually address post-harvest conditions rather than pre-harvest.

"We are trying to develop different management strategies, so this E. coli actually never makes it into the human diet," Paterson said.

To find out if they're successful, the researchers will measure blood components to look at antibody levels. They'll also measure fecal concentrations of E. coli and take liver biopsies, Paterson said.

Skinner's experiment began Sept. 29. Working with him were Travis Standley, a graduate student from Cascade, and two undergraduate students: Collin Gibbs of Jordan and Kelsey Rolfe of Bozeman.

"I kind of started thinking I wanted to go into vet school, but I guess I have just always like the research end of things," said Rolfe, a junior who works on her own research project when she's not helping Skinner. The animal science major is studying carcass trends over the past five years for cattle in the Montana Beef Network.

After graduating in the fall of 2005, Skinner may apply his knowledge in the beef industry and maybe on the family ranch. His twin brother, Tim, has been working there since graduating from MSU in the spring of 2003.

Posted by Evelyn Boswell for 12/6/04