Abstract
An outbreak of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (VTEC O157) infections linked to an open farm occurred in eastern England in April and May 2007. This paper describes the investigation and highlights the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration for successful control of such outbreaks. There was a temporal cluster of 12 confirmed symptomatic cases of VTEC O157 and one asymptomatic carrier, from five families. The investigation revealed that four of these cases formed part of an outbreak involving two families who visited an open farm. The phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of the isolates from the two families and the putative farm animal contacts were indistinguishable, indicating that the animals were the source of the primary infections. No epidemiological link could be established between the remaining three families affected and the open farm or people having visited the farm. Control measures included improved hand washing facilities on the farm, information for visitors and staff, restricted access and suspended petting and feeding of animals, and thorough cleaning and disinfection of affected areas.
Highlights
The most important strains of verotoxin (VT)producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) that cause diarrhoeal illness in the United Kingdom (UK) belong to serogroup O157 (VTEC O157) [1]
Exposure to livestock on open farms continues to pose a threat to the general public and to children, and a number of outbreaks have been reported from the UK [20,21,22,23,24]
A review and analysis of open farm outbreaks in England and Wales over the period 1997–2007 has been presented by Pritchard et al [6]: VTEC O157 was confirmed in 61.3% of the investigated premises containing animals of various species
Summary
The most important strains of verotoxin (VT)producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) that cause diarrhoeal illness in the United Kingdom (UK) belong to serogroup O157 (VTEC O157) [1]. They produce VT1, VT2 or both toxins and are differentiated by phage typing and DNA-based techniques [2]. Several outbreaks of VTEC O157 have been recently reported in the UK [6,7,8,9] Healthy domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep and goats are the natural reservoir for VTEC [1,10]. Spread to humans occurs through contaminated food or water, person-to-person spread or by direct and indirect contact with infected animals and their faeces [1]
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