CHICAGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange

cattle futures turned lower on Wednesday, amid a flurry of

technical selling and uncertainty whether consumer demand for

beef would chill after an E. coli outbreak was linked to

McDonald's Quarter Pounder burgers, traders said.

The outbreak has sickened 49 people in the U.S., with 10

hospitalized due to serious complications and one dead,

according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.

December live cattle ended down 0.25 cent at 187.875

cents per pound, while November feeder cattle futures

settled down 1.700 cents at 247.225 cents per pound.

Meanwhile, CME December lean hog futures rose 1.05

cents to finish at 80.175 cents per pound, on a round of

technical buying as wholesale prices have been staying

unseasonably high, analysts said.

While cattle futures started the day sharply down, much of

Wednesday's choppy trade was due to technical selling and

position adjusting, said Austin Schroeder, analyst with Brugler

Marketing & Management.

Wholesale beef prices were mixed, with the choice boxed beef

cutout falling $2.55 to $321.41 per hundredweight, the USDA

reported Wednesday afternoon. Select boxed beef prices rose

$0.97 cent to $295.77 per cwt.

"We're approaching the summer highs in some of these live

cattle contracts," Schroeder said. "From a technical standpoint

you might be seeing a little bit of a correction."

But news of the E. coli outbreak did add uncertainty to the

market, analysts said. The USDA said on Wednesday it was still

working to determine the safety of ground beef used by

McDonald's, but that the likely cause of the outbreak was

slivered onions.

"There could be some potential for demand to be diverted

away from beef," Schroeder said.

On the other hand, Schroeder said, consumers might simply

switch away from McDonald's. Previous E. coli outbreaks at big

U.S. fast-food chains have caused consumers to shun those chains

for months.