401. Attaching and effacing lesions caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7 in experimentally inoculated neonatal lambs.
- Author
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Wales AD, Pearson GR, Skuse AM, Roe JM, Hayes CM, Cookson AL, and Woodward MJ
- Subjects
- Animals, Animals, Newborn, Bacterial Adhesion, Carrier State pathology, Cattle, Cecum microbiology, Cecum pathology, Cecum ultrastructure, Colon microbiology, Colon pathology, Colony Count, Microbial veterinary, Digestive System microbiology, Digestive System ultrastructure, Escherichia coli Infections pathology, Escherichia coli O157 isolation & purification, Escherichia coli O157 ultrastructure, Humans, Immunohistochemistry veterinary, Microscopy, Electron veterinary, Rectum microbiology, Rectum pathology, Rectum ultrastructure, Sheep, Carrier State veterinary, Digestive System pathology, Escherichia coli Infections veterinary, Escherichia coli O157 physiology, Sheep Diseases pathology
- Abstract
Four 6-day-old conventionally reared lambs were inoculated orally with a total of 10(9) cfu comprising equal numbers of four enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 strains. All animals remained clinically normal. Tissues were sampled under terminal anaesthesia at 12, 36, 60 and 84 h post inoculation (hpi). EHEC O157:H7 was cultured from most gastrointestinal tract sites. Small, sparse attaching and effacing (AE) lesions were found in the caecum at 12 and 36 hpi and in the terminal colon and rectum at 84 hpi. Organisms in the lesions were labelled specifically by an O157 antiserum. The results indicate that the well-characterised mechanisms for intimate attachment encoded by the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE) of EHEC O157:H7 may contribute to the initial events, at least, of colonisation of sheep.
- Published
- 2001
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