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Imprint
Molecular Risk Assessment of Shiga Toxin producing E. coli (STEC) from food and of attaching and effacing E. coli (AEEC) in regard to their human virulence and as a reservoir of new emerging enterohaemorrhagic E. coli types
Project
Project code: BfR-BIOS-08-1322-441
Contract period: 01.04.2010
- 31.12.2010
Purpose of research: Applied research
Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) frequently occur as contaminants of food products during processing ('farm to fork') and may cause disease in human consumers ranging from watery diarrhea to life-threatening hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). To date, over 400 STEC serotypes have been described, but for many STEC types their role as human pathogens remains obscure. A better assessment of STEC as contaminants of food is necessary to focus on diagnostic / monitoring of the human pathogenic STEC variants. These methods should be used for a molecular risk assessment, as serious illnesses such as HC and HUS are often linked to the presence of effector genes contributing to virulence of the bacteria. These effector genes are localized on pathogenicity islands and play a role in the colonization of the host and in the disease process. The laboratories at the BfR (NRL-E.coli) and AFSSA (LERQAP) have developed methods to detect the effector genes in a cooperative study. These methods shall be employed for a risk assessment of STEC from food and of other E. coli strains as possible precursors of EHEC.
Section overview
Subjects
- Food microbiology
- Toxicology
