Panahee, M. & H. Pourtaghi, 2017.

Virulence gene profiles of Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli isolates from retail raw meat in Iran.

Bulg. J. Vet. Med., 20, No 1, 19–26.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is recognised as toxin producing group of E. coli and one of the most significant foodborne pathogens worldwide. The aim of this study was to detect STEC and determine virulence gene profiles of these pathogens in different kinds of meat and products in Iran. For this reason a total of 182 samples of minced beef, mutton, chicken meat, chicken feet and mechanically separated chicken meat were collected from retail markets for detection of STEC by PCR method. Of the 72 E. coli isolated from examined samples, 29 of them were STEC. The highest presence of STEC was detected in minced beef (23.5%) followed by chicken feet (15%), mutton (13.3%), mechanically separated chicken meat (12.5%) and chicken meat (5.5%) respectively. In addition the results of PCR assay indicated that 21 (72.4%) and 4 (13.7%) of isolates carried stx2 and eaeA genes respectively. However, according to the results stx2 was the most prevalent gene detected in all kinds of examined samples. Our findings showed that evaluation of the prevalence and virulence factors of this pathogen seems necessary considering the increasing importance of STEC as one of the most significant foodborne pathogens.  

Key words: beef, chicken, mutton, eaeA, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, stx1, stx2