Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Emerging Infectious Diseases logoLink to Emerging Infectious Diseases
. 1997 Oct-Dec;3(4):561–565. doi: 10.3201/eid0304.970422

Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 outbreaks in England and Wales, 1995: phenotypic methods and genotypic subtyping.

G A Willshaw 1, H R Smith 1, T Cheasty 1, P G Wall 1, B Rowe 1
PMCID: PMC2640094  PMID: 9366610

Abstract

Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 belonging to four phage types (PTs) caused 11 outbreaks of infection in England and Wales in 1995. Outbreak strains of different PTs were distinguishable by DNA-based methods. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis best discriminated among strains belonging to the same PT, distinguishing six of the seven PT2 outbreak strains and both PT49 outbreak strains.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (67.8 KB).

Selected References

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

  1. Barrett T. J., Lior H., Green J. H., Khakhria R., Wells J. G., Bell B. P., Greene K. D., Lewis J., Griffin P. M. Laboratory investigation of a multistate food-borne outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and phage typing. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Dec;32(12):3013–3017. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.12.3013-3017.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bender J. B., Hedberg C. W., Besser J. M., Boxrud D. J., MacDonald K. L., Osterholm M. T. Surveillance by molecular subtype for Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections in Minnesota by molecular subtyping. N Engl J Med. 1997 Aug 7;337(6):388–394. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199708073370604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chapman P. A., Siddons C. A., Harkin M. A. Sheep as a potential source of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157. Vet Rec. 1996 Jan 6;138(1):23–24. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Griffin P. M., Tauxe R. V. The epidemiology of infections caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7, other enterohemorrhagic E. coli, and the associated hemolytic uremic syndrome. Epidemiol Rev. 1991;13:60–98. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a036079. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Karmali M. A. Infection by verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1989 Jan;2(1):15–38. doi: 10.1128/cmr.2.1.15. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Khakhria R., Duck D., Lior H. Extended phage-typing scheme for Escherichia coli O157:H7. Epidemiol Infect. 1990 Dec;105(3):511–520. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800048135. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Stevenson J., Hanson S. Outbreak of Escherichia coli O157 phage type 2 infection associated with eating precooked meats. Commun Dis Rep CDR Rev. 1996 Jul 19;6(8):R116–R118. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Tenover F. C., Arbeit R. D., Goering R. V., Mickelsen P. A., Murray B. E., Persing D. H., Swaminathan B. Interpreting chromosomal DNA restriction patterns produced by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis: criteria for bacterial strain typing. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Sep;33(9):2233–2239. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.9.2233-2239.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Thomas A., Chart H., Cheasty T., Smith H. R., Frost J. A., Rowe B. Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli, particularly serogroup O 157, associated with human infections in the United Kingdom: 1989-91. Epidemiol Infect. 1993 Jun;110(3):591–600. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800051013. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Thomas A., Cheasty T., Chart H., Rowe B. Isolation of Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli serotypes O9ab:H- and O101:H-carrying VT2 variant gene sequences from a patient with haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1994 Dec;13(12):1074–1076. doi: 10.1007/BF02111832. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Thomas A., Cheasty T., Frost J. A., Chart H., Smith H. R., Rowe B. Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli, particularly serogroup O157, associated with human infections in England and Wales: 1992-4. Epidemiol Infect. 1996 Aug;117(1):1–10. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800001060. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Thomas A., Smith H. R., Rowe B. Use of digoxigenin-labelled oligonucleotide DNA probes for VT2 and VT2 human variant genes to differentiate Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli strains of serogroup O157. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Jul;31(7):1700–1703. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.7.1700-1703.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Trevena W. B., Willshaw G. A., Cheasty T., Wray C., Gallagher J. Vero cytotoxin-producing E coli O157 infection associated with farms. Lancet. 1996 Jan 6;347(8993):60–61. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)91593-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Willshaw G. A., Thirlwell J., Jones A. P., Parry S., Salmon R. L., Hickey M. Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 in beefburgers linked to an outbreak of diarrhoea, haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic uraemic syndrome in Britain. Lett Appl Microbiol. 1994 Nov;19(5):304–307. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-765x.1994.tb00461.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Emerging Infectious Diseases are provided here courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RESOURCES