Survival capabilities of Escherichia coli O26 isolated from cattle and clinical sources in Australia to disinfectants, acids and antimicrobials
View/ Open
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
Lajhar, Salma A
Brownlie, Jeremy
Barlow, Robert
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: After E. coli O157, E. coli O26 is the second most prevalent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) serotype identified in cases of foodborne illness in Australia and throughout the world. E. coli O26 associated foodborne outbreaks have drawn attention to the survival capabilities of this organism in a range of environments. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of E. coli O26 to survive the effects of disinfectants, acids and antimicrobials and investigate the possible influence of virulence genes in survival and persistence of E. coli O26 from human and cattle sources from Australia.
Results: ...
View more >Background: After E. coli O157, E. coli O26 is the second most prevalent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) serotype identified in cases of foodborne illness in Australia and throughout the world. E. coli O26 associated foodborne outbreaks have drawn attention to the survival capabilities of this organism in a range of environments. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of E. coli O26 to survive the effects of disinfectants, acids and antimicrobials and investigate the possible influence of virulence genes in survival and persistence of E. coli O26 from human and cattle sources from Australia. Results: Initial characterization indicated that E. coli O26 are a genetically diverse group that were shown to belong to a number of pathotypes. Overall, 86.4% of isolates were susceptible to all antimicrobials tested with no significant differences in resistance observed between pathotypes. A representative subset of isolates (n = 40) were selected to determine their ability to survive disinfectants at proposed industry working concentrations and acid stress. Profoam, Kwiksan 22, and Topactive DES. were able to inhibit the growth of 100% of isolates. The remaining three disinfectants (Dairy Chlor 12.5%, Envirosan and Maxifoam) were not effective against the subset of 40 E. coli O26. Finally, elevated MICs (1,024 to 4,096 μg/ml) of acetic, propionic, lactic, and citric acids were determined for the majority of the isolates (85%). Conclusions: Australian E. coli O26 isolates belong to a range of pathotypes that harbor differing virulence markers. Despite this, their response to antimicrobials, disinfectants and acids is similar confirming that stress response appears unrelated to the presence of EHEC virulence markers. Notwithstanding, the tolerance to disinfectants and the elevated acid MICs for EHEC and the other E. coli O26 pathotypes examined in this study may contribute to bacterial colonization on food contact surfaces and subsequent foodborne illness caused by this pathogen.
View less >
View more >Background: After E. coli O157, E. coli O26 is the second most prevalent enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) serotype identified in cases of foodborne illness in Australia and throughout the world. E. coli O26 associated foodborne outbreaks have drawn attention to the survival capabilities of this organism in a range of environments. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of E. coli O26 to survive the effects of disinfectants, acids and antimicrobials and investigate the possible influence of virulence genes in survival and persistence of E. coli O26 from human and cattle sources from Australia. Results: Initial characterization indicated that E. coli O26 are a genetically diverse group that were shown to belong to a number of pathotypes. Overall, 86.4% of isolates were susceptible to all antimicrobials tested with no significant differences in resistance observed between pathotypes. A representative subset of isolates (n = 40) were selected to determine their ability to survive disinfectants at proposed industry working concentrations and acid stress. Profoam, Kwiksan 22, and Topactive DES. were able to inhibit the growth of 100% of isolates. The remaining three disinfectants (Dairy Chlor 12.5%, Envirosan and Maxifoam) were not effective against the subset of 40 E. coli O26. Finally, elevated MICs (1,024 to 4,096 μg/ml) of acetic, propionic, lactic, and citric acids were determined for the majority of the isolates (85%). Conclusions: Australian E. coli O26 isolates belong to a range of pathotypes that harbor differing virulence markers. Despite this, their response to antimicrobials, disinfectants and acids is similar confirming that stress response appears unrelated to the presence of EHEC virulence markers. Notwithstanding, the tolerance to disinfectants and the elevated acid MICs for EHEC and the other E. coli O26 pathotypes examined in this study may contribute to bacterial colonization on food contact surfaces and subsequent foodborne illness caused by this pathogen.
View less >
Journal Title
BMC Microbiology
Volume
17
Issue
47
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
Subject
Biological sciences
Bacteriology
Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
Biomedical and clinical sciences