title: Prevalence and genetic profiling of virulence determinants of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli isolated from cattle, beef, and humans, Calcutta, India.
abstract: We investigated the prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in hospitalized diarrhea patients in Calcutta, India, as well as in healthy domestic cattle and raw beef samples collected from the city's abattoir. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction using primers specific for stx1 and stx2 detected STEC in 18% of cow stool samples, 50% of raw beef samples, and 1.4% and 0.6% of bloody and watery stool samples, respectively, from hospitalized diarrhea patients. Various virulence genes in the STEC isolates indicated that stx1 allele predominated. Plasmid-borne markers, namely, hlyA, katP, espP, and etpD, were also identified. Bead enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Vero cell assay were performed to detect and evaluate the cytotoxic effect of the Shiga toxins produced by the strains. STEC is not an important cause of diarrhea in India; however, its presence in domestic cattle and beef samples suggests that this enteropathogen may become a major public health problem in the future.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33, CIT Road, Belighata, Calcutta 700 010, India.
authors.forename: Asis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Thandavarayan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.forename: Simanti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.forename: Nandini Roy
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Suresh Chandra
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Asim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sikdar
authors.forename: Teizo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsukamoto
authors.forename: Sujit Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Gopinath Balakrish
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Nair
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012703:Serotyping; D022603:Shiga Toxins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D014709:Vero Cells; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D005819:Genetic Markers; D022603:Shiga Toxins