Abstract

Verotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC) O157:H7 is a zoonotic disease agent with asymptomatic ruminants such as cattle and sheep as reservoir hosts. Infection in humans can cause bloody diarrhoea with occasionally fatal complications such as haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), particularly in children. In this thesis, the genetic variation among representative sets of O157:H7 isolates from Swedish cattle, sheep and human clinical cases is studied to find markers to predict the relative pathogenicity of different genotypes, and to improve methods for tracing spread of the bacteria. The results show that the same types occur in cattle, sheep and human patients infected within the country. However, certain types are common among ruminants while extremely rare among patient isolates, while others are overrepresented among patients. Better molecular tracing tools together with interventions targeted against highly pathogenic types of O157:H7 will allow more efficient and cost-effective efforts to reduce the burden of disease caused by VTEC O157:H7.

Keywords

Escherichia coli; O157:H7; VTEC; STEC; EHEC; zoonosis; cattle; MLVA

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2015, number: 2015:110
ISBN: 978-91-576-8418-9, eISBN: 978-91-576-8419-6
Publisher: Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

SLU Authors

• Söderlund, Robert

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Cell and Molecular Biology
Microbiology


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68487