1887

Abstract

Fifteen cases of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 infection were associated with the consumption of contaminated food from two related butchers’ premises in the north-east of England. Ten cases were admitted to hospital and seven cases developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome. A case control study found a statistically significant association with the purchase of raw and/or ready-to-eat (RTE) food supplied by the implicated butchers’ shops. Isolates of STEC O157 were detected in two raw lamb burgers taken from one of the butchers’ premises. Subsequent environmental sampling identified STEC O157 in bovine faecal samples on the farm supplying cattle to the implicated butchers for slaughter. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform on all cultures isolated from humans, food and cattle during the investigation. Quality trimmed Illumina reads were mapped to the STEC O157 reference genome Sakai using bwa-mem, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified using gatk2. Analysis of the core genome SNP positions (>90 % consensus, minimum depth 10×, mapping quality (MQ)≥30) revealed that all isolates from humans, food and cattle differed by two SNPs. WGS analysis provided forensic-level microbiological evidence to support the epidemiological links between the farm, the butchers’ premises and the clinical cases. Cross-contamination from raw meat to RTE foods at the butchers’ premises was the most plausible transmission route. The evidence presented here highlights the importance of taking measures to mitigate the risks of cross-contamination in this setting.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000160
2018-02-28
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/mgen/4/3/mgen000160.html?itemId=/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000160&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Byrne L, Jenkins C, Launders N, Elson R, Adak GK. The epidemiology, microbiology and clinical impact of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in England, 2009–2012. Epidemiol Infect 2015; 143:3475–3487 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Chapman PA, Siddons CA, Cerdan Malo AT, Harkin MA. A one year study of Escherichia coli O157 in raw beef and lamb products. Epidemiol Infect 2000; 124:207–213 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Caprioli A, Morabito S, Brugère H, Oswald E. Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli: emerging issues on virulence and modes of transmission. Vet Res 2005; 36:289–311 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Hancock D, Besser T, Lejeune J, Davis M, Rice D. The control of VTEC in the animal reservoir. Int J Food Microbiol 2001; 66:71–78 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Jenkins C, Lawson AJ, Cheasty T, Willshaw GA. Assessment of a real-time PCR for the detection and characterization of verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli . J Med Microbiol 2012; 61:1082–1085 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Dallman TJ, Byrne L, Ashton PM, Cowley LA, Perry NT et al. Whole-genome sequencing for national surveillance of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157. Clin Infect Dis 2015; 61:305–312 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Li H, Durbin R. Fast and accurate long-read alignment with Burrows-Wheeler transform. Bioinformatics 2010; 26:589–595 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  8. McKenna A, Hanna M, Banks E, Sivachenko A, Cibulskis K et al. The Genome Analysis Toolkit: a MapReduce framework for analyzing next-generation DNA sequencing data. Genome Res 2010; 20:1297–1303 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Stamatakis A. RAxML version 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies. Bioinformatics 2014; 30:1312–1313 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Pritchard GC, Smith R, Ellis-Iversen J, Cheasty T, Willshaw GA. Verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 in animals on public amenity premises in England and Wales, 1997 to 2007. Vet Rec 2009; 164:545–549 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Liddell KG. Escherichia coli O157: outbreak in central Scotland. Lancet 1997; 349:502–503 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Rajpura A, Lamden K, Forster S, Clarke S, Cheesbrough J et al. Large outbreak of infection with Escherichia coli O157 PT21/28 in Eccleston, Lancashire, due to cross contamination at a butcher's counter. Commun Dis Public Health 2003; 6:279–284[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Dallman TJ, Ashton PM, Byrne L, Perry NT, Petrovska L et al. Applying phylogenomics to understand the emergence of Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains causing severe human disease in the UK. Microb Genom 2015; 1:e000029 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Paiba GA, Wilesmith JW, Evans SJ, Pascoe SJ, Smith RP et al. Prevalence of faecal excretion of verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 in cattle in England and Wales. Vet Rec 2003; 153:347–353 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Toft N, Innocent GT, McKendrick IJ, Ternent HE, Mellor DJ et al. Spatial distribution of Escherichia coli O157-positive farms in Scotland. Prev Vet Med 2005; 71:45–56 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gunn GJ, McKendrick IJ, Ternent HE, Thomson-Carter F, Foster G et al. An investigation of factors associated with the prevalence of verocytotoxin producing Escherichia coli O157 shedding in Scottish beef cattle. Vet J 2007; 174:554–564 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Chapman PA, Cerdán Malo AT, Ellin M, Ashton R, Harkin MA. Escherichia coli O157 in cattle and sheep at slaughter, on beef and lamb carcasses and in raw beef and lamb products in South Yorkshire, UK. Int J Food Microbiol 2001; 64:139–150 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Avery SM, Small A, Reid CA, Buncic S. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis characterization of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 from hides of cattle at slaughter. J Food Prot 2002; 65:1172–1176 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  19. McEvoy JM, Doherty AM, Sheridan JJ, Thomson-Carter FM, Garvey P et al. The prevalence and spread of Escherichia coli O157:H7 at a commercial beef abattoir. J Appl Microbiol 2003; 95:256–266 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  20. O’Brien SB, Duffy G, Carney E, Sheridan JJ, McDowell DA et al. Prevalence and numbers of E. coli O157 on bovine hides at a beef slaughter plant. J Food Protect 2005; 68:660–665
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Little CL, de Louvois J. The microbiological examination of butchery products and butchers' premises in the United Kingdom. J Appl Microbiol 1998; 85:177–186 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000160
Loading
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000160
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplements

Supplementary File 1

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error