Characterization of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated in Italy and in France

ABSTRACT Twenty-one Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains isolated in northern Italy from sporadic cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome and from cattle and food were characterized by virulence gene analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of Xba I-digested DNA, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) sequence-based PCR (ERIC-PCR), and antibiotic resistance patterns and compared to 18 strains isolated in France from human cases of diarrhea, cattle, and the environment. Strains isolated in Sicily (southern Italy) from a local farm (one strain) and from calves just imported from France (11 strains) and Spain (six strains) were also typed. Whereas the eae and hlyA genes were al…