Prevalence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in raw and treated municipal sewage.

摘要

Municipal sewage was screened for DNA encoding Shiga-like Toxin (SLT) II, a key protein involved in the virulence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. PCR analysis of sewage concentrates showed that DNA encoding SLT II was present in a single sample of untreated sewage and absent in all other samples tested (n = 6). Thermotolerant E. coli cultured from the sewage (n = 1,520) also tested negative for SLT II by colony hybridization.