Dynamics of shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and their virulence factors in cattle

D. Döpfer*, L. Geue, S. Schares, B. Mintel, B. Hoffmann, E. A.J. Fischer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Starting at birth, twenty Holstein calves were housed individually, in groups of five and finally in one large freestall while fecal samples were collected weekly for 25 weeks. From each sample, twenty isolates of Escherichia coli were screened for 6 virulence markers including shiga-toxin 1, 2, intimin, enterohemolysin, the fimbrial antigen efa1 and the adhesin saa. Dynamic models of transmission of E. coli were used to model the transmission of different virulotypes between calves and the loss of the same virulotypes from the calves. It was found that, once E. coli encoding shiga-toxins in combination with enterohemolysin were transmitted and established in a calf, they tended to be eliminated less efficiently compared to E. coli without this combination of virulence markers. It was concluded that the presence of certain combinations of virulence markers coincided with persistence of E. coli in the bovine gastrointestinal tract. In addition, the combinations of stx with either eae or ehxA in E. coli have a greater impact on the loss rates than on the transmission rates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-30
Number of pages9
JournalPreventive Veterinary Medicine
Volume103
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Jantien Backer for the discussions regarding the modeling during the study. Franz Conraths is kindly acknowledged for his comments on this manuscript. This study was funded by funds from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment , The Hague, The Netherlands and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute , Greifswald, Insel-Riems, Germany.

Funding

We thank Jantien Backer for the discussions regarding the modeling during the study. Franz Conraths is kindly acknowledged for his comments on this manuscript. This study was funded by funds from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment , The Hague, The Netherlands and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute , Greifswald, Insel-Riems, Germany.

Keywords

  • Cattle
  • EHEC
  • Escherichia coli
  • STEC
  • Transmission
  • Virulence markers

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