THE USE OF RIDASCREEN (ELISA) FOR RESEARCH OF EHEC STRAINS

Some of the common diagnostic methods of an EHEC infection seem to hav e disadvantages. To prove the pathogenic factor, a verotoxin detection should be carried out on cultures from faeces. This can occur on a ge netic basis with PCR or, immunologically with ELISA: in comparison to PCR, the ELISA technique offers a simpler method which can be carried out in every laboratory. In this study 250 strains of E. coli (isolate d from dairy-cow faeces) have been examined and only some of them resu lted toxigenic (1.6%).