Colonization of meat by enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157
Abstract
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are anthropozoonotic agent responsible for recurrent foodpoisoning often caused by contaminated burgers. EHEC infection is essentially a pediatric illness, which can lead to life-threatening pathologies. Runimants are the main natural reservoir for EHEC and primary bacterial contamination occurs of meat at the dehiding stage of slaughtering.The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the most exposed part of the skeletal muscles in beef carcasses. This study aimed at investigating bacterial colonization to the skeletal-muscle extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and muscle tissue, it appeared that environmental factors influenced specific and non-specific bacterial adhesion of O157 and non-O157 EHEC as well as biofilm formation.