Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli: An overview1

The objective of this review is to highlight the importance of cattle in human disease due to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and to discuss features of STEC that are important in human disease. Healthy dairy and beef cattle are a major reservoir of a diverse group of STEC that infects humans through contamination of food and water, as well as through direct contact. Infection of humans by STEC may result in combinations of watery diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, and hemolytic uremic syndrome. Systems of serotyping, subtyping, and virulence typing of STEC are used to aid in epidemiology, diagnosis, and pathogenesis studies. Severe disease and outbreaks of disease are most commonly due to serotype…