Use of Immunomagnetic Separation Technique and Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detection of Verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli in Cattle at Slaughter

Verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) strains can cause severe human diseases, such as haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic-uraemic-syndrome (HUS), together with mild diarrhoeal diseases and asymptomatic infections. VTEC strains were isolated by the use of immunomagnetic-separation (IMS) and genes coding for virulence factors were identified by multiplex PCR. A high number of strains were found to be positive for VTEC virulence genes by multiplex PCR.