Screening food raw materials for the presence of the worldʹs most frequent clinical cases of Shiga toxin-encoding Escherichia coli O26, O103, O111, O145 and O157

This work aims to provide a strategy for rapidly screening food raw materials of bovine origin for the presence of the most frequent O-serogroups of Shiga toxin-encoding Escherichia coli (STEC) involved in food poisoning outbreaks. The prevalence of highly pathogenic serogroups of STEC was surveyed in 25 g portions of minced meat and raw milk using PCR-ELISA and multiplex real-time PCR assays. The prevalence of STEC in raw milk (n = 205) and meat samples (n = 300) was 21% and 15%, respectively. Contamination by the main pathogenic E. coli O-serogroups representing a major public health concern, including O26, O103, O111, O145, and O157, was potentially around 2.6% in minced meat and 4.8% in raw milk. The MPN values showed an overall contamination ranging from 1 to 2 MPN cells from highly pathogenic serogroups/kg. This survey would indicate that the human pathogenic potential of STEC present in these samples probably remains limited. No conclusion can be drawn at the moment concerning a potential risk for consumers. This rapid screening approach for evaluating the potential presence of highly pathogenic serogroups of STEC in food raw materials should help to improve risk assessment of food poisoning outbreaks.