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FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - The likely source of an E. coli outbreak in spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200 was a small cattle ranch about 30 miles from California's central coastline, state and federal officials said Friday as they concluded their investigation.
Authorities for the first time said they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch in San Benito County near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics, a spinach grower.
They found E. coli "indistinguishable from the outbreak strain" in river water, cattle feces, and wild pig feces on the ranch within a mile a from the spinach fields, the California Department of Health Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a joint report.
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