Cattle can be a reservoir of sorbitol-fermenting Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 : H- strains and a source of human diseases

Using the immunomagnetic separation procedure, we isolated sorbitol-ferment ing (SF) Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coil (STEC) O157:H- strains from two patients, one with hemolytic-uremic syndrome and the other with diarrh ea, and from a dairy cow epidemiologically associated with the patients. Th e phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of all isolates were identical o r closely related. Moreover, the bovine isolate showed a clonal relatedness to SF STEC O157:H- strains isolated from patients in Germany and the Czech Republic from 1988 to 1998. This is the first evidence that cattle can be a reservoir of SF STEC O157:H- and a source of human diseases.