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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #134899
Title: ROLE OF EHEC IN CATTLE AND HUMANS

Author
item Nystrom, Evelyn
item Stoffregen, William

Submitted to: Abstracts World Buiatrics Congress
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2002
Publication Date: 11/20/2002
Citation: NYSTROM, E.A., STOFFREGEN, W.C. ROLE OF EHEC IN CATTLE AND HUMANS. KASKE, M., SCHOLZ, H., HOLTERSHINKEN, M., EDITORS. KLINIK FUR RINDERKRANKHEITEN. TIERARZTLICHE HOCHSCHULE HANNOVER. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES IN BOVINE MEDICINE. 2002. P. 68-74.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Cattle are important reservoirs of Shiga-like toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), foodborne pathogens that cause severe diarrhea and sometimes kidney failure and death in humans. Our goal is to develop an effective vaccine to prevent cattle from becoming infected and transmitting EHEC O157:H7 to humans. EHEC O157:H7 require intimin, encoded by the eae gene locus, to colonize and cause intestinal damage in intestinal damage in calves. Similarly, intimin is also necessary for intestinal lesion formation in newborn piglets. We believe that an immune response to intiminO157 may be effective in reducing the amount of O157:H7 in cattle and are using neonatal pigs to determine if antibodies against intiminO157 can interfere with EHEC O157:H7 infections. We vaccinated pregnant pigs against intiminO157 and showed that these pigs developed antibodies against intiminO157 in their serum and colostrum. At 2 to 10 days after they were experimentally challenged with Shiga toxin-negative E. coli O157:H7 strain 87-23, piglets that ingested colostrum from intiminO157-vaccinated dams had fewer of the inoculated bacteria in their intestines than did piglets that nursed sham-vaccinated dams. The intestinal surfaces of piglets that nursed intiminO157-vaccinated dams, but not those that nursed the sham-vaccinated dams, were protected from E. coli O157:H7-induced lesions. These results demonstrate that antibodies against intiminO157 can interfere with EHEC O157:H7 infections and show that intiminO157 is a viable candidate for an EHEC O157:H7 anti-transmission vaccine.