Molecular characterization of pathogenic E. coli isolated from meat and their products

Abstract EN

This study was planned to throw the light on the prevalence of Escherichia coli (E.

coli) in meat and meat products and determine its virulence gene that may be considered a significant food safety threat.

Therefore two hundred samples of meat and meat products; minced meat, kofta, sausage, beefburger, pastirma, luncheon and hot dog (25 of each) were randomly collected from supermarkets, butcher shops and street vendors in Ismailia city.

Bacteriological examination revealed that the prevalence of E.

coli was 17 % of the total collected samples.

Serological identification of E.

coli isolated from meat, minced meat, beefburger and pastirma revealed that strains of E.

coli were belong to serotypes O:157 K:-, O:91 K:-, O:103 K:-, O:125 K:70 respectively, while O:26 K:60 serotype was isolated from kofta and sausage.

Strains from luncheon and hot dog were Untyped, in addition to isolated E.

coli strains from all samples were untyped by using Anti-Coli I, II and III.

Molecular characterization of typed strains of E.

coli using Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) showed that serotype O:26 K:60 was isolated from kofta and harbored both vt1 and vt2, while O:26 K:60, O:103 K:- and O:91 K:- serotypes isolated from sausage, beefburger and minced meat respectively, were harbored vt2 gene only.