title: Genetic features differentiating bovine, food, and human isolates of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 in The Netherlands.
abstract: The frequency of Escherichia coli O157 genotypes among bovine, food, and human clinical isolates from The Netherlands was studied. Genotyping included the lineage-specific polymorphism assay (LSPA6), the Shiga-toxin-encoding bacteriophage insertion site assay (SBI), and PCR detection and/or subtyping of virulence factors and markers [stx1, stx(2a)/stx(2c), q21/Q933, tir(A255T), and rhsA(C3468G)]. LSPA6 lineage II dominated among bovine isolates (63%), followed by lineage I/II (35.6%) and lineage I (1.4%). In contrast, the majority of the human isolates were typed as lineage I/II (77.6%), followed by lineage I (14.1%) and lineage II (8.2%). Multivariate analysis revealed that the tir(A255T) SNP and the stx(2a)/stx(2c) gene variants were the genetic features most differentiating human from bovine isolates. Bovine and food isolates were dominated by stx(2c) (86.4% and 65.5%, respectively). Among human isolates, the frequency of stx(2c) was 36.5%, while the frequencies of stx(2a) and stx(2a) plus stx(2c) were 41.2% and 22.4%, respectively. Bovine isolates showed equal distribution of tir(255A) (54.8%) and tir(255T) (45.2%), while human isolates were dominated by the tir(255T) genotype (92.9%). LSPA6 lineage I isolates were all genotype stx(2c) and tir(255T), while LSPA6 lineage II was dominated by tir(255A) (86.4%) and stx(2c) (90.9%). LSPA6 lineage I/II isolates were all genotype tir(255T) but showed more variation in stx(2) types. The results support the hypothesis that in The Netherlands, the genotypes primarily associated with human disease form a minor subpopulation in the bovine reservoir. Comparison with published data revealed that the distribution of LSPA6 lineages among bovine and human clinical isolates differs considerably between The Netherlands and North America.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Centre for Infectious Disease Control, Laboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology,Bilthoven, The Netherlands. eelco.franz@rivm.nl
authors.forename: Eelco
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Franz
authors.forename: Angela H A M
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: van Hoek
authors.forename: Fimme J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: van der Wal
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Boer
authors.forename: Ans
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zwartkruis-Nahuis
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van der Zwaluw
authors.forename: Henk J M
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Aarts
authors.forename: Annet E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Heuvelink
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000662:veterinary*; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D058889:Molecular Typing; D009426:Netherlands; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D037521:Virulence Factors