"Animals are not sterile, and neither are we. They carry many different kinds of bacteria in unimaginably large numbers (we do too). Fortunately, most bacteria are harmless, but some, like that especially nasty form of E.coli, are deadly. Toxic bacteria often do not make the animals sick, but they can make you sick---and sometimes kill you---if you eat meat from animals that carry them.
"How bacteria of any kind get into the meat you buy in supermarkets is not a pretty story. Like all animals, food animals excrete bacteria in their wastes, and these bacteria spread quickly under the crowded conditions in feedlots, batteries, and slaughterhouses. Bacteria also spread from one animal to another during slaughter and when meat is cut and ground. Bacteria usually only contaminate the other surfaces of whole cuts of meat like roasts, steaks, or chops; if you sear pieces of meat like these, you kill the bacteria on their surfaces. Bacteria cannot easily get into the inside of a steak, for example, unless it has been pierced, cut, or ground. That is why hamburger poses safety problems; once ground, the bacteria on its surface can mix into its interior. Meat packers make commercial hamburger from the parts of a large number (sometimes hundreds) of beef cattle, so if just one animal is contaminated with harmful bacteria, the entire batch of hamburger can make people ill. This is also why it makes sense to cook commercial hamburger thoroughly, so you kill bacteria throughout the mix. Meat will never be completely free of bacteria, but you have every right to wonder why producers are not doing a better job of keeping their meats free of harmful ones."
from What to Eat by Marion Nestle
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