title: Screening food raw materials for the presence of the world's most frequent clinical cases of Shiga toxin-encoding Escherichia coli O26, O103, O111, O145 and O157.
abstract: This work aims to provide a strategy for rapidly screening food raw materials of bovine origin for the presence of the most frequent O-serogroups of Shiga toxin-encoding Escherichia coli (STEC) involved in food poisoning outbreaks. The prevalence of highly pathogenic serogroups of STEC was surveyed in 25 g portions of minced meat and raw milk using PCR-ELISA and multiplex real-time PCR assays. The prevalence of STEC in raw milk (n=205) and meat samples (n=300) was 21% and 15%, respectively. Contamination by the main pathogenic E. coli O-serogroups representing a major public health concern, including O26, O103, O111, O145, and O157, was potentially around 2.6% in minced meat and 4.8% in raw milk. The MPN values showed an overall contamination ranging from 1 to 2 MPN cells from highly pathogenic serogroups/kg. This survey would indicate that the human pathogenic potential of STEC present in these samples probably remains limited. No conclusion can be drawn at the moment concerning a potential risk for consumers. This rapid screening approach for evaluating the potential presence of highly pathogenic serogroups of STEC in food raw materials should help to improve risk assessment of food poisoning outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments, Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur la Qualité des Aliments et sur les Procédés Agroalimentaires, Unité EBA: Etude moléculaire des contaminants biologiques alimentaires, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Perelle
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dilasser
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grout
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fach
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012703:Serotyping; D022603:Shiga Toxins / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D022603:Shiga Toxins