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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 3810-3818, Vol. 67, No. 9
Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research
Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of
Agriculture, Clay Center, Nebraska 68933-0166
Received 5 January 2001/Accepted 8 June 2001
Escherichia coli O157:H7 and O157 nonmotile
isolates (E. coli O157) previously were
recovered from feces, hides, and carcasses at four large Midwestern
beef processing plants (R. O. Elder, J. E. Keen, G. R. Siragusa, G. A. Barkocy-Gallagher, M. Koohmaraie, and W. W. Laegreid, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:2999-3003,
2000). The study implied relationships between cattle infection and
carcass contamination within single-source lots as well as between
preevisceration and postprocessing carcass contamination, based on
prevalence. These relationships now have been verified based on
identification of isolates by genomic fingerprinting.
E. coli O157 isolates from all positive samples were
analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA
after digestion with XbaI. Seventy-seven individual subtypes (fingerprint patterns) grouping into 47 types were
discerned among 343 isolates. Comparison of the fingerprint patterns
revealed three clusters of isolates, two of which were closely related to each other. Remarkably, isolates carrying both Shiga toxin genes and
nonmotile isolates largely fell into specific clusters. Within lots
analyzed, 68.2% of the postharvest (carcass) isolates matched
preharvest (animal) isolates. For individual carcasses, 65.3 and 66.7%
of the isolates recovered postevisceration and in the cooler,
respectively, matched those recovered preevisceration. Multiple
isolates were analyzed from some carcass samples and were found to
include strains with different genotypes. This study suggests that most
E. coli O157 carcass contamination originates from
animals within the same lot and not from cross-contamination between
lots. In addition, the data demonstrate that most carcass contamination
occurs very early during processing.
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.3810-3818.2001
Genotypic Analyses of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and
O157 Nonmotile Isolates Recovered from Beef Cattle and Carcasses at
Processing Plants in the Midwestern States of the United
States


*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: USDA, ARS, Roman
L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, P.O. Box 166, Spur 18D, Clay Center, NE 68933-0166. Phone: (402) 762-4228. Fax: (402) 762-4149. E-mail: gallagher{at}emailmarc.usda.gov.
Present address: USDA, ARS, Russell Research Center, Athens, GA
30604-5677.
Present address: USDA, ARS, South Plains Agricultural
Research Center, College Station, TX 77845.
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