Immunomagnetic separation of Escherichia coli O26, O111 and O157 from vegetables.
OBJECTIVE
Raw fruits and vegetables have been increasingly associated with human infections caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. This study evaluates the isolation and detection of E. coli O26, O111 and O157 from vegetable samples using immunomagnetic particles.


RESULTS
Standard cultivation and immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedures were compared. It was found that immunomagnetic particles could efficiently concentrate E. coli cells, detecting significantly more bacteria than with standard cultivation procedures.


CONCLUSIONS
Bacteria were detected in 93-100% of the inoculated samples using the IMS procedure, but only 36-93% samples tested by standard cultivation procedures were found to be positive.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that E. coli O26, O111 and O157 immunomagnetic particles can be a very useful and efficient tool for the detection of E. coli strains in raw vegetables, and could probably be used with samples of animal origin.
Safaríková
M
M
Laboratory of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Institute of Landscape Ecology, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic. mirkasa@uek.cas.cz
Safarík
I
I
D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014675:Vegetables / Q000382:microbiology*