Four strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated from patients during an outbreak of disease associated with ground beef: importance of evaluating multiple colonies from an outbreak-associated product.
This report describes the investigation of a ground-beef-associated outbreak that involved five genetically distinct patient strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Human and product isolates were evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with two endonucleases. The multiple-strain etiology of this outbreak underscores the importance of isolating and evaluating multiple colonies from outbreak-related products and comparing two endonuclease PFGE patterns of all product and human isolates identified during outbreak periods. This investigation emphasizes the importance of interviewing all confirmed and suspected case patients during the outbreak period, regardless of the PFGE pattern of their isolate, to confirm or rule out an epidemiologic link to the outbreak.
Proctor
Mary E
ME
Bureau of Communicable Diseases, Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Madison, Wisconsin 53701, USA. proctm@aol.com
Kurzynski
Terry
T
Koschmann
Cindy
C
Archer
John R
JR
Davis
Jeffrey P
JP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008461:Meat Products / Q000382:microbiology*; D008875:Middle Aged