Table 42.
Virulotypes (stx type and presence of eae) in food, animal and human STEC isolates causing severe infection (haemolytic‐uraemic syndrome (HUS), hospitalisation and bloody diarrhoea) in 2021 and comparison with those associated with severe disease in humans during 2012–2017, EU
| Virulence genes profile | N of animal isolates in 2021 (a) | N of food isolates in 2021 (a) | N of human isolates in 2021 (%) | Relative frequency of the virulotype in (b) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HUS | Hospitalisation | Bloody diarrhoea | ||||
| stx2; eae+ | 53 | 23 | 164 (34.1) | 17.7 | 42.0 | 40.2 |
| stx1; stx2; eae+ | 17 | 10 | 126 (26.2) | 5.9 | 35.7 | 64.8 |
| stx1; eae+ | 43 | 34 | 58 (12.1) | 1.2 | 27.4 | 27.3 |
| stx2; eae‐ | – | 139 | 74 (15.4) | 2.7 | 24.3 | 14.8 |
| stx1; eae‐ | – | 61 | 34 (7.1) | 0.3 | 20.3 | 14.1 |
| stx1; stx2, eae‐ | – | 17 | 25 (5.2) | 1.4 | 15.3 | 19.4 |
| Total | 77 | 284 | 481 (100) | – | – | – |
STEC: Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli; HUS: haemolytic‐uraemic syndrome. The stx genes were characterised at the type level (stx1 and stx2).
(a)
: Due to the low number of isolates virulotyped for food and animals, only the number of isolates is shown.
(b)
: Relative frequencies (%) of the different combinations of stx gene types with or without the eae gene in STEC isolated from severe disease (TESSy data, 2012–2017) (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2020b).