Virulence profiling and quantification of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O145:H28 and O26:H11 isolated during an ice cream-related hemolytic uremic syndrome outbreak

In September-October 2007, a mixed-serotype outbreak of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) O145:H28 and O26:H11 occurred in the province of Antwerp, Belgium. Five girls aged between 2 and 11 years developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, and seven other coexposed persons with bloody diarrhea were identified. Laboratory confirmation of O145:H28 infection was obtained for three hemolytic uremic syndrome patients, one of whom was coinfected with O26:H11. The epidemiological and laboratory investigations revealed ice cream as the most likely source of the outbreak. The ice cream was produced at a local dairy farm using pasteurized milk. VTEC of both serotypes with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns were isolated from patients, ice cream, and environmental samples. Quantitative analysis of the ice cream indicated concentrations of 2.4 and 0.03 CFU/g for VTEC O145 and O26, respectively. Virulence typing revealed that the repertoire of virulence genes carried by the O145:H28 outbreak strain was comparable to that of O157 VTEC and more exhaustive as compared to the O26:H11 outbreak strain and nonrelated clinical strains belonging to these serotypes. Taken together, these data suggest that O145:H28 played the most important role in this outbreak

Rapid diagnosis of bacterial meningitis

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Comparison of Auxacolor with API 20 C Aux in yeast identification

Objective: To compare Auxacolor with API 20 C Aux for identification of yeasts.Methods: A total of 206 isolates belonging to 25 species was used in this study. Conventional yeast identification methods were used as a reference.Results: With API 20 C Aux, the correct identification rate was 89.3% after 2 days, while 94.7% of the strains were correctly identified after 3 days. One of 14 strains of Candida tropicalis and 10 of 16 strains of Trichosporon cutaneum were not correctly identified. With Auxacolor, the percentages of correct identification after 1 and 2 days were 60.1% and 69.4%, respectively. Most strains of 11 of the 20 species considered in the system were correctly identified, including several of the most frequent yeast species. Several less commonly encountered yeast species were not correctly identified. Suggestions for improvement of the Auxacolor system are given.Conclusions: For the most frequent yeast species, Auxacolor, after adaptation and correction of the identification table, provides a useful alternative to API 20 C Aux. For less frequently encountered yeast species, the use of API 20 C Aux is preferable

Development of a Monoclonal Antibody to a <i>Ureaplasma urealyticum</i> Serotype 9 Antigen

ABSTRACT We produced a monoclonal antibody (MAb) to Ureaplasma urealyticum Vancouver, the serotype 9 standard strain. By immunoblotting, this MAb showed a single, 85-kDa band with the homologous serotype and a minor, 100-kDa band with serotype 2 but did not react with any other serotype standard strain. Clinical isolates of U. urealyticum were tested with this MAb and with two sets of polyclonal antisera against the 14 serotype standard strains. The use of MAb 9-2H9 correctly identified certain serotype 9 strains but did not react with wild-type strains lacking the serotype 9 determinant. </jats:p