Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are highly pathogenic in humans and have low infectious doses, ranging from 1 to 100 colony-forming units, and cause serious acute illness and long-term sequelae, especially kidney failure (6). More than 100 enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) serotypes have been identified worldwide. Serotypes O26, Olll and O103 and especially O157 have been the most commonly isolated. In some prevalence studies conducted in the US, STEC O26 isolates predominated (7, 8). STEC O26 has emerged in the past two decades as one of the most clinically relevant of more than 50 non-O157 human EHEC serotypes (6). Due to limitations of current isolation and detection methods, many cases of non-O157 STEC-associated disease are being diagnosed only fortuitously (2). In this study, we investigated useful phenotypic and virulence-associated genetic markers of STEC O26 that could be exploited for routine selective or differential isolation and rapid confirmation of these emerging human pathogens. The overall objectives were to establish carbohydrate fermentation profiles of STEC O26 for use in development of differential isolation media and to determine the incidence of virulence gene markers for use in genetic confirmation of STEC O26.
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