Prevalence and diversity of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains in fresh produce

Peter C H Feng; Shanker P Reddy

doi:10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-13-412

Prevalence and diversity of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains in fresh produce

J Food Prot. 2014 May;77(5):820-3. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-13-412.

Authors

Peter C H Feng¹, Shanker P Reddy²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Microbiology, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland, 20740, USA. peter.feng@fda.hhs.gov.
² Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250, USA.

PMID: 24780338
DOI: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-13-412

Abstract

Analysis of fresh produce showed that enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains are most often found in cilantro and parsley, with prevalence rates of approximately 0.3%. Some ETEC strains also carried Shiga toxigenic E. coli (STEC) genes but had no STEC adherence factors, which are essential to cause severe human illness. Most ETEC strains in produce carried stable toxin and/or labile toxin genes but belonged to unremarkable serotypes that have not been reported to have caused human illnesses.

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / classification
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / genetics
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / isolation & purification*
Food Contamination / analysis*
Food Contamination / statistics & numerical data
Fruit / microbiology*
Humans
Prevalence
Vegetables / microbiology*