Supervivencia de VTEC O157 y no-O157 en agua de bebederos y materia fecal de bovinos

ROSANA POLIFRONI; ANALÍA I. ETCHEVERRÍA; GUILLERMO H. ARROYO; NORA L. PADOLA

REVISTA ARGENTINA DE MICROBIOLOGíA

ASOCIACION ARGENTINA MICROBIOLOGIA

Año: 2014 vol. 46 p. 126 - 132

0325-7541

ABSTRACT Verotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) are the etiologic agent of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), that affect children typically ranged in age from six months old to five years old. The transmission is produced by consumption of contaminated foods, by direct contact with animals or the environment and person to person. In previous studies we determined that the environment of a dairy farm is a non animal reservoir, for that we proposed to study the survival of 4 VTEC isolates (O20:H19; O91:H21; O157:H7 and O178:H19) in sterile water troughs and bovine feces by viable bacteria count and detection of virulence genes by PCR. It was demonstrated that the survival of different VTEC isolates (O157 and non-O157) varied in function of their own characteristics as well as the environmental conditions where they were. The main differences between isolates were the survival time and maximal counts reached. The competitive and adaptive characteristic of some isolates increase the infection risk for people that are working or visiting a farm, as well as increase the reinfection risk for the animals and the contamination of foods.