Escherichia coli O157:H7 in feral swine near spinach fields and cattle, central California coast.

We investigated involvement of feral swine in contamination of agricultural fields and surface waterways with Escherichia coli O157:H7 after a nationwide outbreak traced to bagged spinach from California. Isolates from feral swine, cattle, surface water, sediment, and soil at 1 ranch were matched to the outbreak strain.

Controlling for anthropogenically induced atmospheric variation in stable carbon isotope studies.

Increased use of stable isotope analysis to examine food-web dynamics, migration, transfer of nutrients, and behavior will likely result in expansion of stable isotope studies investigating human-induced global changes. Recent elevation of atmospheric CO2 concentration, related primarily to fossil fuel combustion, has reduced atmospheric CO2 delta13C (13C/12C), and this change in isotopic baseline has, in turn, reduced plant and animal tissue delta13C of terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Such depletion in CO2 delta13C and its effects on tissue delta13C may introduce bias into delta13C investigations, and if this variation is not controlled, may confound interpretation of results obtained from tissue samples collected over a temporal span.