Prevalence of eae-positive, lactose non-fermenting Escherichia albertii from retail raw meat in China

SUMMARYEscherichia albertiiis a newly emerging enteric pathogen that has been associated with gastroenteritis in humans. Recently,E. albertiihas also been detected in healthy and sick birds, animals, chicken meat and water. In the present study, the prevalence and characteristics of theeae-positive, lactose non-fermentingE. albertiistrains in retail raw meat in China were evaluated. Thirty isolates of such strains ofE. albertiiwere identified from 446 (6·73%) samples, including duck intestines (21·43%, 6/28), duck meat (9·52%, 2/21), chicken intestines (8·99%, 17/189), chicken meat (5·66%, 3/53), mutton meat (4·55%, 1/22) and pork meat (2·44%, 1/41). None was isolated from 92 samples of raw beef meat. Strains were identified asE. albertiiby phenotypic properties, diagnostic PCR, sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene, and housekeeping genes. Five intimin subtypes were harboured by these strains. All strains possessed the II/III/V subtype group of thecdtBgene, with two strains carrying another copy of the I/IV subtype group. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed high genetic diversity ofE. albertiiin raw meats. Our findings indicate thatE. albertiican contaminate various raw meats, posing a potential threat to public health.