Title: OCCURRENCE OF ENTEROHAEMORRHAGIC Escherichia coli IN BUFFALO MEAT
Abstract: Enterohaemorragic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a pathogenic E.coli which causes diarrhea or haemorrhagic colitis in human beings, which may occasionally progress to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).A total of 100 buffalo meat samples (buffen) were processed for finding out the presence of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC).Among them, thirty five samples were found positive for E. coli (35%), which yielded 37 isolates belonging to 17 different serogroups.However, one strain remained untypable.Further, out of 37 E. coli, nine were confirmed as EHEC and belonged to four different serogroups viz., O10, O68, O111 and O172.All the 9 EHEC strains were cytotoxigenic to Vero-cells.Cytotoxic changes usually appeared at 12 hours post inoculation (hpi) and their intensity increased up to 72 hpi.The important cellular changes recorded were rounding and degeneration of cells followed by detachment of cell sheet and subsequently formation of homogenized cellular masses.Most predominant serotype of EHEC was O111 having 5 isolates (55.6%) and none of the E. coli isolate belonged to serotype O157.The prevalence of a wide range of EHEC serogroups in buffalo meat may be due to contamination during or after slaughter and may serve as major source of human infections.