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Listen to this siteMonday 18 November 2002
This research project aims to study the prevalence of non-VTEC E.coli, which are potential human pathogens, in the faeces of Scottish beef cattle.
Study Duration : January 2002 to December 2003
Contractor : Scottish Agricultural College
This project will study the prevalence of non-VTEC E.coli, which are potential human pathogens, in the faeces of Scottish beef cattle. This builds onto an existing project funded by the Wellcome Trust through their IPRAVE (International Partnership Research Award in Veterinary Epidemiology) study. This research will lead to a better understanding of the relative potential risk of these organisms entering the Scottish Food Chain.
E. coli isolates of serogroups other than O157 (termed non-O157 VTEC) make a significant contribution to human diarrhoeal disease. This research provides the proportion of Scottish finishing cattle shedding E. coli of types O26, O103, O111 and O145. In Scotland, this work has shown that Vero cytotoxin producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) strains of types O103, O111 or O145 are uncommon or absent in cattle. In contrast, the type O26 VTEC are considerably more common and at farm level the 10% prevalence is close to the 14.7% found for E. coli O157. Additionally, there are clear seasonal patterns with the least number of non-O157 VTEC positives found in the spring and the most in summer and autumn. This is the opposite to the results for E. coli O157 where more positives are found when the animals are inside buildings in the cooler months rather than out to pasture during the summer months.
The final report is available from the Agency's Information Centre.
To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Information Services, Food Standards Agency (tel: 020 7276 8181/8182 or email:
infocentre@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
)
Contact
: For any enquiries concerning this research project, please contact the relevant Programme contact or email:
science@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
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