study of the contamination of traditional cheeses to e. coli serotypes in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province

to determine the contamination of traditional cheeses to e. coli o157:h7 this study was conducted in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province. two hundred cheeses samples were obtained randomly and bacteriological examinations were done on all isolates, by culture in selective enrichment media and after that, selective plating. suspected colonies were examined with o and h antisera for identification of serotypes of e. coli, by direct agglutination method. two percent of unpasturized cheeses were contaminated to e. coli o157 but non of them were o157:h7. the contamination of sheep, cow and goat cheeses were 3.84%, 1.7% and 0, respectively. seventeen percent of e. coli isolated from samples were as serotypes including, enteropathogenic (o44, o55, o114, o125, o126, o127, o86), enterotoxigenic (o20, o128) and verotoxigenic (o26, o111). from the results of this study it seems that traditional cheeses could be a potent vehicle to transmit the various serotype of e. coli to human.