Comparison of Six Chromogenic Agar Media for the Isolation of a Broad Variety of Non-O157 Shigatoxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) Serogroups

Bavo Verhaegen, Koen De Reu, Marc Heyndrickx and Lieven De Zutter
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Bavo Verhaegen: Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Technology and Food Science Unit, Brusselsesteenweg 370, 9090 Melle, Belgium
Koen De Reu: Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Technology and Food Science Unit, Brusselsesteenweg 370, 9090 Melle, Belgium
Marc Heyndrickx: Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Technology and Food Science Unit, Brusselsesteenweg 370, 9090 Melle, Belgium
Lieven De Zutter: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: The isolation of non-O157 STEC from food samples has proved to be challenging. The selection of a suitable selective isolation agar remains problematic. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate six chromogenic agar media for the isolation of STEC: Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide agar (TBX), Rainbow ® Agar O157 (RB), Rapid E. coli O157:H7 (RE), Modified MacConkey Agar (mMac), CHROMagar TM STEC (Chr ST) and chromID TM EHEC (Chr ID). During this study, 45 E. coli strains were used, including 39 STEC strains belonging to 16 different O serogroups and 6 non-STEC E. coli . All E. coli strains were able to grow on TBX and RB, whereas one STEC strain was unable to grow on Chr ID and a number of other STEC strains did not grow on mMac, CHROMagar STEC and Rapid E. coli O157:H7. However, only the latter three agars were selective enough to completely inhibit the growth of the non-STEC E. coli . Our conclusion was that paired use of a more selective agar such as CHROMagar STEC together with a less selective agar like TBX or Chr ID might be the best solution for isolating non-O157 STEC from food.

Keywords: shigatoxin-producing E. coli; non-O157; chromogenic; isolation; agar media; quantitative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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