We present here the draft genome sequences of five Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains which tested positive in a primary subAB screening. Assembly and annotation of the draft genomes revealed that all strains harbored the recently described allelic variant subAB2-3 Based on the sequence data, primers were designed to identify and differentiate this variant.

Non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains are emerging food-borne pathogens causing life-threatening diseases and food-borne outbreaks. A better understanding of their evolution provides a framework for developing tools to control food safety. We obtained 15 genomes of non-O157 STEC strains, including O26, O111, and O103 strains. Phylogenetic trees revealed a close relation...

Typical and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains differ in several characteristics. Typical EPEC, a leading cause of infantile diarrhea in developing countries, is rare in industrialized countries, where atypical EPEC seems to be a more important cause of diarrhea. For typical EPEC, the only reservoir is humans; for atypical EPEC, both animals and humans can be reservoirs. ...

The present study aimed at biochemical and molecular characterization of Escherichia coli strains isolated from horticultural products and irrigation water of Cotonou. The samples were collected from 12 market gardeners of 4 different sites. Rapid' E. coli medium was used for identification of E. coli strains and the antimicrobial susceptibility was performed by the agar disk diffusion method. ...

New safety recommendations for destroying enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) include cooking hamburgers thoroughly, incorporating a procedure that kills EHEC in the manufacture of raw fermented sausage, such as salami, and pasteurizing or using an equivalent processing method for apple cider. Public health problems with EHEC are being recognized throughout the world. The need for consumer educati...

Adherence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) to the intestinal epithelium is essential for initiation of infection. Intimin is the only factor demonstrated to play a role in intestinal colonization by EHEC O157:H7. Other attempts to identify additional adhesion factors in vitro have been unsuccessful, suggesting that expression of these factors is under tight regulation. We sought to ...

AIM To quantify the effect of enrichment, immunomagnetic separation (IMS), and selective plating procedures on isolation of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157) and non-Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli O157 (non-STEC O157) from naturally contaminated bovine faeces. METHODS AND RESULTS Two broth enrichment times, two IMS strategies, and two selective plating media were evaluated. ...

In this study, we developed a new rapid, economic, and automated microarray-based genotyping test for the standardized subtyping of Shiga toxins 1 and 2 of Escherichia coli. The microarrays from Alere Technologies can be used in two different formats, the ArrayTube and the ArrayStrip (which enables high-throughput testing in a 96-well format). One microarray chip harbors all the gene sequences ...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) produce shiga toxins (Stxs) that can cause human disease and death. The contamination of food products with STEC represents a food safety problem that necessitates rapid and effective detection strategies to mitigate risk. In this manuscript, we report the development of a colorimetric lateral flow assay (LFA) for the rapid detection of Stxs in <10 ...

Escherichia coli serogroup O103 has been associated with gastrointestinal illness and hemolytic uremic syndrome. To develop PCR-based methods for detection and identification of this serogroup, the DNA sequence of the 12,033-bp region containing the O antigen gene cluster of Escherichia coli O103 was determined. Of the 12 open reading frames identified, the E. coli O103 wzx (O antigen flippase)...