Leafy green produce has been associated with numerous outbreaks of foodborne illness caused by strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7. While the amounts of culturable E. coli O157:H7 rapidly decline after introduction onto lettuce in the field, it remains to be determined whether the reduction in cell numbers is due to losses in cell viability, cell injury and a subsequent inability to be detected...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli are important serotypes of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) subgroup that cause attaching and effacing lesions in enterocytes by producing verotoxins or shiga-like toxins resulting in haemorrhagic colitis (HC) and haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The aim of this study was to detect these serotypes specially E. coli O157:H7 in stool sample...

This study compared the efficacy of lactoferricin B (LB), peroxyacetic acid (PAA), acidified sodium chlorite (ASC), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), acetic acid (AA), lactic acid (LA), acidified chlorite (AC) and water when analyzed as dipping solutions for fresh beef carcass tissue (BCT) surfaces for reducing populations of Escherichia coli O157:H7. In this study, CPC reduced E. coli O157:H7 po...

In recent years, several studies have reported infections associated with Escherichia coli O157:H7, especially in developed countries (1). Except Japan, isolation of E. coli O157:H7 has also been reported in Asian countries (2). Limited work has been carried out on E. coli O157:H7 in Thailand (3,4). Suthienkul et al. reported no E. coli O157 in retail meat and cattle (3), but it was recently is...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes 73,000 illnesses in the United States annually. We reviewed E. coli O157 outbreaks reported to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand the epidemiology of E. coli O157. E. coli O157 outbreaks (>or=2 cases of E. coli O157 infection with a common epidemiologic exposure) reported to CDC from 1982 to 2002 were reviewed. In that period, 4...

Weaned 3- to 4-month-old calves were fasted for 48 h, inoculated with 10(10) CFU of Shiga toxin-positive Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 strain 86-24 (STEC O157) or STEC O91:H21 strain B2F1 (STEC O91), Shiga toxin-negative E. coli O157:H7 strain 87-23 (Stx(-) O157), or a nonpathogenic control E. coli strain, necropsied 4 days postinoculation, and examined bacteriologically and histologically. S...

AIMS To determine if exogenous melatonin (MEL) influences growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in pure culture and if MEL affects faecal shedding patterns of E. coli O157:H7 or total leucocyte counts in sheep. METHODS AND RESULTS Two strains of E. coli O157:H7 were cultured in the presence of varying concentrations of MEL. Maximal specific growth rates of E.coli O157:H7 strains were not affecte...

One hundred and ten clinical Escherichia coli isolates of serovar O157 (n = 102) and O26 (n = 8) were characterized for the presence of putative virulence genes by PCR. All but one of these isolates contained the eae gene. The EHEC-hly gene could be detected in all E. coli O157 and in 50% of E. coli O26 isolates. Forty-five (40.9%) of the 110 E. coli were positive for both stx(1) and stx(2) gen...

OBJECTIVE To describe the frequency and distribution of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the feces and environment of cow-calf herds housed on pasture. SAMPLE POPULATION Fecal and water samples for 10 cow-calf farms in Kansas. PROCEDURE Fecal and water samples were obtained monthly throughout a 1-year period (3,152 fecal samples from 2,058 cattle; 199 water samples). Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ...

Escherichia coli O26 and O157 have similar overall prevalences in cattle in Scotland, but in humans, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26 infections are fewer and clinically less severe than E. coli O157 infections. To investigate this discrepancy, we genotyped E. coli O26 isolates from cattle and humans in Scotland and continental Europe. The genetic background of some strains from Scotland was c...