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. 1990 Aug;105(1):11–20. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800047592

Prevalence of verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli in ground beef, pork, and chicken in southwestern Ontario.

S C Read 1, C L Gyles 1, R C Clarke 1, H Lior 1, S McEwen 1
PMCID: PMC2271808  PMID: 2200697

Abstract

Samples of ground beef (225), pork (235) and chicken (200) were randomly selected from meat processing plants in the southwestern Ontario area. Supernatants of broth cultures of the samples were tested for verocytotoxins using a Vero cell assay. Neutralization of cytotoxic activity using antisera specific for three types of verocytotoxin (Verotoxin 1, Verotoxin 2 and Shiga-like toxin II) was performed on positive samples. Isolation of verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) was attempted from positive samples. VTEC were confirmed as E. coli biochemically, tested for drug resistance, and serotyped. Based on neutralization studies, the prevalence of VTEC in beef and pork was at least 36.4% and 10.6%, respectively. This is much higher than has been reported from a survey of retail meats in which a method designed to detect only E. coli O 157.H7 was used. Isolations of VTEC were made from 10.4% of the beef samples and 3.8% of the pork samples. No VTEC were recovered from the chicken samples. The majority of VTEC isolates were susceptible to commonly used antimicrobial agents. A number of the serotypes of the VTEC isolates recovered have been associated with human disease; however, no VTEC of serotype O 157.H7 were isolated.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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