Affiliation:
1. School of Biological Sciences
2. Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, United Kingdom
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The concentration and prevalence of
Escherichia coli
O157 in cattle feces at the time of slaughter was studied over a 9-week period from May to July 2002. Fecal samples (
n
= 589) were collected from the rectums of slaughtered cattle, and the animal-level prevalence rate was estimated to be 7.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.4 to 9.6%) while the group prevalence was 40.4% (95% CI, 27.7 to 53.2%). Of the 44 infected animals detected, 9% were high shedders that contained
E. coli
O157 at concentrations of >10
4
CFU g
−1
. These 9% represented >96% of the total
E. coli
O157 produced by all animals tested. All isolates possessed the
vt
2
gene, 39 had the
eaeA
gene, and a further five had the
vt
1
gene also. The presence of high-shedding animals at the abattoir increases the potential risk of meat contamination during the slaughtering process and stresses the need for correctly implemented hazard analysis and critical control point procedures.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
Cited by
250 articles.
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