Isolation and Characterization of Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli O157 Strains from Dutch Cattle and Sheep

DOI: 10.1128/JCM.36.4.878-882.1998

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Fig. 1.
Geographic distributions of adult cattle found to be positive for E. coli O157 at slaughter, adult cattle sampled, and all dairy cattle within The Netherlands (23). The locations of the farms of origin for 39 of the 540 adult animals sampled, including 6 animals positive for E. coli O157, could not be traced.
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Fig. 2.
Agarose gels showing XbaI digestion patterns (designated A to AI) of fecal E. coli O157 isolates of phage types (PT) 2, 4, and 8 from cattle (A) and from patients with D+ HUS (B). (A) Lanes 1 and 18, molecular size markers (bacteriophage lambda ladder); lanes 2 to 5 and lane 16, isolates positive for VT2 andeae genes; lanes 6 to 15, isolates positive for VT1, VT2, andeae genes; lane 17, isolate positive only for theeae gene. (B) Lanes 1 and 17, molecular size markers (bacteriophage lambda ladder); lanes 2 to 16 and lanes 18 to 27, isolates positive for VT2 and eae genes; lanes 28 to 30, isolates positive for VT1, VT2, and eae genes.

Table 1.

Isolation of fecal E. coli O157 from Dutch adult cattle and veal calves at slaughter

Year of isolation	Animal source of isolates	No. (%) of animalsE. coli O157 positive	No. of isolates obtained by the following method^a:
Year of isolation	Animal source of isolates	No. (%) of animalsE. coli O157 positive	SMAC	CT-SMAC	IMS
1995	Adult cattle	30/270 (11.1)	0	4	30
	Veal calves	1/183 (0.5)	0	1	0
1996	Adult cattle	27/270 (10.0)	ND^b	4	27
	Veal calves	1/214 (0.5)	ND	0	1

↵a SMAC, isolation on SMAC following enrichment in mEC+n for 18 to 20 h; CT-SMAC, isolation on CT-SMAC following enrichment in mEC+n for 18 to 20 h; IMS, isolation on CT-SMAC following enrichment in mEC+n for 6 to 8 h and IMS ofE. coli O157.
↵b ND, not done.

Table 2.

Characterization of fecal E. coli O157 isolates from Dutch cattle, sheep, and humans with D+ HUS

Phage type	Vero cell assay for VT	PCR result for the following gene:			No. (%) of isolates			No. of distinct XbaI patterns
Phage type	Vero cell assay for VT	VT1	VT2	eae	Cattle (n = 59)	Sheep (n = 4)	Human (n = 33)	No. of distinct XbaI patterns
2	+	−	+	+	1 (1.7)	0	15 (45.5)	11^a
2	+	+	+	+	0	1^b (25.0)	0	1
4	+	+	+	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1
4	+	−	+	+	3 (5.1)	0	10 (30.3)	11^c
8	+	+	+	+	9 (15.2)	0	3 (9.1)	10^d
8	+	−	+	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1
8	−	−	−	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1
10	+	−	+	+	3 (5.1)	0	0	1^c
14	+	+	+	+	4 (6.8)	0	1 (3.0)	4^e
14	+	−	+	+	6^f (10.2)	0	0	4^g
21	+	+	+	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1
23	+	+	+	+	2 (3.4)	0	0	2
31	+	−	+	+	7 (11.8)	0	0	5^h
32	+	−	+	+	2 (3.4)	0	0	1
32	+	+	+	+	0	0	1 (3.0)	1
34	+	+	+	+	2 (3.4)	1 (25.0)	0	2ⁱ
34	+	−	+	+	2 (3.4)	0	0	2
49	+	−	+	+	0	0	2 (6.1)	2
54	+	+	+	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1
54	+	−	+	+	3 (5.1)	1 (25.0)	1 (3.0)	5
rdnc^j	+	+	+	+	1^f (1.7)	0	0	1
rdnc	+	−	+	+	8 (13.5)	1^b (25.0)	0	8
rdnc	−	−	−	+	1 (1.7)	0	0	1

↵a Including a group of four and a group of three identical patterns, all of which were generated from human isolates.
↵b Isolate from a lamb.
↵c The three cattle isolates of phage type 4 and the three cattle isolates of phage type 10 generated identical patterns.
↵d Including a group of three identical patterns generated from two cattle and one human isolate.
↵e Two cattle isolates shared the same pattern.
↵f One isolate from a veal calf.
↵g Three isolates generated identical patterns.
↵h Including two groups of two identical patterns.
↵i One of the cattle isolates showed a pattern identical to that of the sheep isolate.
↵j rdnc, reacted with phage set but did not correspond to recognized phage type.