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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 2001;285:156.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Detection methods that don't rely on identifying Escherichia coli O157:H7's O antigen may be needed to ensure that food and drinking water are safe from the potentially lethal bacteria.

In a recent study, researchers at the National Institute of Health Sciences in Tokyo reported that E coli O157:H7 can lose its O antigenicity after surviving long periods of stress and starvation. To mimic starvation, the Japanese researchers cultured 19 strains of the verotoxin-producing bacteria and then left three strains in distilled water for 21 months and 16 in phosphate-buffered saline for nearly 8 months. On testing with an agglutination kit and O157 antiserum, the researchers found that seven of the 19 strains had lost O antigenicity. Detection of O antigenicity is widely used to identify E coli O157:H7. Yet, even without that distinctive fingerprint, the E coli strains still produced verotoxin.

"A method that does not depend on . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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