Atypical strains of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 in beef cattle at slaughter in Veneto region, Italy

Cattle arriving for slaughter at abattoirs in the Veneto region of N. Italy were examined for intestinal carriage of Escherichia coli O157. Rectal swabs were cultured in modified buffered peptone water and E. coli O157 was concentrated by an immunomagnetic separation technique; the magnetic beads were cultured onto cefixime tellurite sorbitol MacConkey agar. Sorbitol non-fermenting E. coli O157 was isolated from 15 (3.6 %) of 419 feedlot cattle but not from 437 veal calves or 65 culled cows. All strains of E. coli O157 hybridized with DNA probes specific for the VT1 or VT2 genes, but two strains did not produce toxin detectable by Vero cell assay. Six different plasmid profiles were observed with all strains harbouring the large 93 kb plasmid characteristic of VTEC. Six strains produced urease but otherwise strains were biochemically typical of E. coli O157. One strain was resistant to streptomycin, tetracycline and sulphonamides but the remainder mere sensitive to all antimicrobials tested. This is the first description of the isolation of verocytotoxin-producing E. call O157 from cattle in Italy. As the contamination of bovine carcasses with E. coli O157 during slaughter and processing has been demonstrated, the risk of transmission of this organism from beef cattle to the human population in the Veneto region, through foods of bovine origin or by other routes, should not be overlooked.