Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are foodborne pathogens that cause mild or serious diseases and can lead to people death. This study reports the prevalence and characteristics of STEC O157 and non-O157 in commercial ground beef and environmental samples, including meat table, knife, meat mincing machine, and manipulator hands (n = 450) obtained from 90 retail markets over a nine-m...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a commensal organism in cattle, but it is a pathogen in humans. This differential expression of virulence suggests that specific virulence factors are regulated differently in human and bovine hosts. To test this hypothesis, relative real-time reverse transcription-PCR was used to relate the expression of several putative virulence genes (eae, espA, stx(2), rfbE, ehx...

In Uruguay, the mortality of dairy calves due to infectious diseases is high. Escherichia coli a natural inhabitant intestinal microbiota, but can cause several infections. The aim work was characterize E. isolates from and extraintestinal origin dead newborn calves. Using PCR, virulence gene characteristics pathogenic were searched. molecularly characterized phylogroup, serogroup Stx subtype d...

today, it is nearly 25 years past from investigation of shiga toxigenic escherichia coli (stec) which is able to produce shiga toxins and cause different gastroenteritis. since incidence of gastroenteritis due to stec is increasing, it's necessary to develop rapid, specific and accurate procedures like pcr. in this study, we used pcr method to detect and identify stec in cultures of 55 escheric...

This study aims to assess the prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in ground beef collected in two cities located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. A total of 250 samples of raw ground beef were collected in local grocery stores during the period of March to December 2002 in the cities of Ribeirão Preto (114 samples) and Campinas (136 samples), São Paulo State, Brazil. T...

We describe the characterization of 126 atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (aEPEC) isolates from 1,749 Brazilian children. Classic aEPEC strains were more frequently found in children with diarrhea than in controls (P < 0.001), showing their importance as acute diarrhea agents in our country. Only aEPEC strains carrying either the ehxA or paa gene were significantly associated with diar...

The 13 Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) strains isolated from wholesale spinach and lettuce consisted mostly of serotypes that have not been implicated in illness. Among these strains, however, were two O113:H21 that carried virulence genes common to this pathogenic serotype (stx(2), ehxA, saa, and subAB), suggesting that their presence in ready-to-eat produce may be of health concern.

We investigated the presence of the gene of subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB), described in certain highly virulent verocytotoxigenic E. coli strains, in isolates from Argentina and its relation with other virulence factors. The gene subA was present in eae-negative strains mostly associated with saa, vt2 and ehxA genes.

Guano samples from 412 Brazilian bats were screened with real-time PCR for the virulence genes (eae, est, elt, stx1, stx2, ehxA, invA, bfpA, aggR) representing five intestinal pathotypes of Escherichia coli. From 82 pooled samples, 22% contained Escherichia coli DNA, and eae, est, bfpA, aggR were detected.