Search

Zoonotic pathogen Escherichia albertii has been identified as the cause of several human disease outbreaks; however, factors such as the general symptoms and incubation period of E. albertii infect...

Escherichia albertii is a recently recognized human enteropathogen that is closely related to Escherichia coli . In many Gram-negative bacteria, including E. coli , O-antigen variation has long been used for the serotyping of strains. In E. albertii , while eight O-serotypes unique to this species have been identified, some strains have been shown to exhibit genetic or serological similarity to known E. coli / Shigella O-serotypes. However, the diversity of O-serotypes and O-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters (O-AGCs) of E. albertii remains to be systematically investigated. Here, we analysed the O-AGCs of 65 E. albertii strains and identified 40 E. albertii O-genotypes (EAOgs) (named EAOg1–EAOg40). Analyses of the 40 EAOgs revealed that as many as 20 EAOgs exhibited significant genetic and serological similarity to the O-AGCs of known E. coli / Shigella O-serotypes, and provided evidence for the inter-species horizontal gene transfer of O-AGCs between E. albertii and E. coli . Based on the sequence variation in the wzx gene among the 40 EAOgs, we developed a multiplex PCR-based O-genotyping system for E. albertii (EAO-genotyping PCR) and verified its usefulness by genotyping 278 E. albertii strains from various sources. Although 225 (80.9 %) of the 278 strains could be genotyped, 51 were not assigned to any of the 40 EAOgs, indicating that further analyses are required to better understand the diversity of O-AGCs in E. albertii and improve the EAO-genotyping PCR method. A phylogenetic view of E. albertii strains sequenced so far is also presented with the distribution of the 40 EAOgs, which provided multiple examples for the intra-species horizontal transfer of O-AGCs in E. albertii .

The pattern of symptoms caused by Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O91 in Japan differs from that in European countries. STEC O91 is often isolated from sporadic adult cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) in France ([1][1]), while in Germany, STEC O91 with sequence type 442 (

1. 生食用鶏肉類のサルモネラ汚染率は12.3%であり, 一般の加熱用鶏肉と比べると低い汚染率であったが, 生で喫食される食品であるため, 食中毒につながる危険性は大きく, 本食品の調理と保管には充分な注意が必要と考えられた.2. 生食用鶏肉類調理施設でのアンケート調査では, 作業実態が把握できたが, 各施設で調理された製品のサルモネラおよびカンピロバクター汚染の原因は明確にできなかった.3. 生食用鶏肉の調理は, [解体]―[皮剥ぎ]―[スライス]の3工程において, それぞれ専用のまな板・包丁・布巾を使用し, 各工程間には手洗いを行い, 手洗い後は使い捨て紙タオルで手指を拭く手順で行えば, 最終製品のサルモネラ汚染を最小限に抑えることが可能であることがわかった.