Research Publications (Food Safety)

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are major foodborne human pathogens that cause mild to hemorrhagic colitis, which could lead to complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome.  Seven serogroups, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145 and O157, account for the majority of the STEC illnesses in the US.

Water use for antimicrobial intervention application for beef harvest has come under increased scrutiny in recent years in an effort to enhance water conservation during beef harvest and fabrication. This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of beef safety interventions for reducing surrogates of the Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) on beef cuts while lowering intervention-purposed water use for a Small or Very Small beef establishment.

A total of 482 veal cutlet, 555 ground veal, and 540 ground beef samples were purchased from retail establishments in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. over a non-contiguous, two-year period between 2014 and 2017. Samples (325 g each) were individually enriched and screened via real-time PCR for all seven regulated serogroups of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC).

The use of molecular diagnostics for pathogen detection in epidemiological studies have allowed us to get a wider view of the pathogens associated with diarrhea, but the presence of enteropathogens in asymptomatic individuals has raised several challenges in understanding the etiology of diarrhea, and the use of these platforms in clinical diagnosis as well.

Many cattle are persistently colonized with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and represent a major source of human infections with human-pathogenic STEC strains (syn. enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC)). Intervention strategies most effectively protecting humans best aim at the limitation of bovine STEC shedding. Mechanisms enabling STEC to persist in cattle are only partialy understood.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a foodborne pathogen transmitted from animals to humans through contaminated food. Cattle are the main reservoir of STEC, but their genetic diversity is still poorly characterized, especially regarding strains isolated in Portugal. We therefore present the draft genomic sequences of 12 STEC strains isolated from cattle in the north of Portugal.

Author(s): L.C. Eastwood, T.M. Taylor, J.W. Savell, K.B. Gehring, A.N. Arnold

Pathogen thermal resistance studies on low-water activity foods (LWAF) use a variety of methods to inoculate food, as well as strategies to reduce water activity, which can influence thermal resistance observations.

Shiga‐toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major bacterium responsible for disease resulting from foodborne infection, including bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). STEC produces important virulence factors such as Shiga toxin (Stx) 1 and/or 2. In the STEC family, some Locus for Enterocyte Effacement (LEE)‐negative STEC produce two different types of cytotoxins, Stx2 and Subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB).

L. Byrne et al. Signs and symptoms of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroup O157:H7 infection range from mild gastrointestinal to bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). We assessed the association between Shiga toxin gene (stx) subtype and disease severity for »3,000 patients with STEC O157:H7 in England during 2009–2019.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an enteric pathogen that causes several gastrointestinal ailments in humans across the world. STEC’s ability to cause ailment is attributed to the presence of a broad range of known and putative virulence factors (VFs) including those that encode Shiga toxins. A total of 51 E.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a foodborne pathogen, and serotype O157:H7 is typically associated with severe disease. Australian STEC epidemiology differs from many other countries, as severe outbreaks and HUS cases appear to be more often associated with non-O157 serogroups. It is not known why Australian strains of O157 STEC might differ in virulence to international strains. Here we investigate the reduced virulence of Australian strains.

To the Editor—We read the article by Franz et al [1] with great interest. They performed a pan-genome, spatio-temporal, phylogenetic study of Escherichia coli isolates of O157:H7, a major serotype of Shiga toxin–producing E. coli (STEC), and concluded that E. coli O157:H7 has spread globally by the transportation of cattle.

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR (RT-PCR) molecular method and Crystal Diagnostic Xpress  ( CDx) immunoassay for detecting  Salmonella  and STEC in air samples collected from abattoirs in Texas. A total of 70 air samples were collected from two small and two large plants in the spring and summer season using a wall wetted cyclone (WWC) air sampler.

Author(s): Zhuosheng Liu, Chao Liao, Kayla Golson, Shelley Phillips, Luxin Wang

Author(s): Yukiko Hara-Kudo, Kayoko Ohtsuka, Noriko Konishi, Takako Yoshida, Kaori Iwabuchi, Takahiro Hiratsuka, Yuhki Nagai, Keiko Kimata, Hiroyuki Wada, Takumiko Yamazaki, Akihiko Tsuchiya, Tetsuya Mori, Shunichi Inagaki, Shogo Shiraishi, Jun Terajima

Background Combination of high pressure processing (HPP) and antimicrobials is a well‐known approach to enhance the microbiological safety of foods. However, few researchers have applied multiple antimicrobials simultaneously with HPP, which could be an additional hurdle for microbial inactivation.

Author(s): Jennifer C. Acuff, Jian Wu, Claire Marik, Kim Waterman, Daniel Gallagher, Haibo Huang, Robert C. Williams, Monica A. Ponder

Escherichia coli carrying prophage with genes that encode for Shiga toxins are categorized as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) pathotype. Illnesses caused by STEC in humans, which are often foodborne, range from mild to bloody diarrhea with life-threatening complications of renal failure and hemolytic uremic syndrome and even death, particularly in children. As many as 158 of the total 187 serogroups of E.

The hypervariable nature of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) makes them valuable biomarkers for subtyping and epidemiological investigation of Escherichia coli. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) serogroup O80 is one hybrid pathotype that is emerging recently in Europe and is involved in hemolytic uremic syndrome with bacteremia. However, whether STEC O80 strains can be genotyped using CRISPR has not been evaluated.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major source of food-borne illness around the world. E. coli O157 has been widely reported as the most common STEC serogroup and has emerged as an important ente...

Author(s): E.L. Shebs-Maurine, E.S. Torres, Y. Yeh-Parker, A.S. de Mello

Author(s): Tong Zhao, Pingsheng Ji, Govindaraj Dev Kumar

Bacteriophages are pivotal elements in the dissemination of virulence genes. The main virulence determinants of Shiga Toxin producing E. coli, Shiga Toxins (Stx), are encoded by genes localized in the genome of lambdoid bacteriophages. Stx comprise two antigenically different types, Stx1 and Stx2, further divided into subtypes.

Author(s): Dhafer Alshaibani, Robson A.M. Machado, Beth L. Calder, Jennifer J. Perry