MADISON, Wis.-
Two bags of spinach collected from E. coli patients in Wisconsin are linked to the national outbreak of the disease, state health officials said.
The match of the Dole brand baby spinach was confirmed by DNA testing, the state Department of Health and Family Services said Wednesday.
One bag was collected in Milwaukee, said Paul Biedrzycki, manager of disease control and prevention for the Milwaukee Health Department. There was no immediate word where the other bag was found.
Four other bags of the Dole spinach–found in Utah, New Mexico and Pennsylvania–have also been linked to the E. coli strain. Each was processed during the same shift on Aug. 15 at a Natural Selection Foods plant in San Juan Bautista, Calif. Messages left Thursday with the Wisconsin health department regarding the origin of the newly identified bags were not immediately returned.
Inspectors seeking the source of the E. coli outbreak are looking at the Natural Selections plant and nine California farms that supplied it with fresh spinach.
The same strain of E. coli has sickened 48 Wisconsin residents and 183 people nationwide since last month. A 77-year-old Wisconsin woman died of the disease, and it is suspected in two other deaths: a child in Idaho and an elderly woman in Maryland.
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