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Molecular typing methods to investigate transmission of Escherichia coli O157[ratio ]H7 from cattle to humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

M. LOUIE
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, SD Laboratory Services, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
S. READ
Affiliation:
Health Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
L. LOUIE
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, SD Laboratory Services, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
K. ZIEBELL
Affiliation:
Health Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
K. RAHN
Affiliation:
Health Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
A. BORCZYK
Affiliation:
Central Public Health Laboratory, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
H. LIOR
Affiliation:
Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Abstract

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The utility of phage typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and plasmid profile analysis was compared, to differentiate between Canadian Escherichia coli O157[ratio ]H7 strains of human (n = 27) and cattle (n = 24) origin. The diversity indices for phage typing, plasmid analysis and PFGE were 0·85, 0·69 and 0·93, respectively. PFGE and phage typing were also applied to study the role of direct transmission of E. coli O157[ratio ]H7 from cattle to humans on isolates collected from two separate farm outbreaks. PFGE showed that more than one E. coli O157[ratio ]H7 strain with varying PFGE DNA subtype profiles, may be responsible for an outbreak, and that more than one E. coli O157[ratio ]H7 subtype may be circulating on a particular farm at any one time. To our knowledge, this is one of the first reports where PFGE typing was used to verify the direct transmission of E. coli O157[ratio ]H7 from cattle to humans.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press