The molecular identification of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) isolated from meat and meat products

Abstract

The present study aims to diagnose diarrheagenic E. coli in meat and meat products by the conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique using the uidA gene to confirm the existence of the bacterial isolates as E. coli. The multiplex PCR technique is adopted to detect the virulence genes of these bacteria using two groups of primers for detecting the gene (stx1, stx2, aggR, esth, eae, invE, daaC, estp, elt, and bfpA). This study applies these primers to 100 E. coli strains isolated from 782 samples of meat and meat products (fresh, minced, burger, pastirma, and chicken) from February to November 2020. The results of the present study show that all E. coli isolates are positive to have the uidA gene (147 bp). The study also detects 95/782 (12.15%) pathogenic species related to virulence genes by using multiplex PCR. The highest percentage of pathotype is ETEC, 46.32%, and the lowest is the DAEC type 1.05%. In addition, the other pathotypes are 20.05, 14.74, 6.32, 6.32, and 5.26% of STEC, EHEC, aEPEC, EAEC, and EIEC, respectively. The high contamination rate with DEC reported in this study is associated with the poor hygiene conditions of slaughtering and meat storage in shops and markets, resulting in health risks to consumers.