Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio
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| Language: | English |
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The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
2020
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1591752682157538 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu1591752682157538 |
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NDLTD |
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English |
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Public Health |
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Public Health Vaughn, Andrew W. Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| author |
Vaughn, Andrew W. |
| author_facet |
Vaughn, Andrew W. |
| author_sort |
Vaughn, Andrew W. |
| title |
Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| title_short |
Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| title_full |
Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| title_fullStr |
Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio |
| title_sort |
environmental prevalence of shiga toxin-producing escherichia coli in a veal production system in northeast ohio |
| publisher |
The Ohio State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1591752682157538 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT vaughnandreww environmentalprevalenceofshigatoxinproducingescherichiacoliinavealproductionsysteminnortheastohio |
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1719472119187767296 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu15917526821575382021-08-25T05:12:51Z Environmental Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Veal Production System in Northeast Ohio Vaughn, Andrew W. Public Health Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a zoonotic pathogen of great concern to public health professionals due to its ability to cause considerable outbreaks and adverse health effects and sequalae. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) most current data from FoodNet, the incidence rate for STEC has significantly increased by 26 percent compared to the incidence from 2015 to 2017. There are many species that can act as hosts, but cattle are referred to as the major reservoir of STEC in the United States. Dairy cattle and cattle between the ages of 2-6 months show a higher prevalence of STEC when compared to other cattle demographics. This indicates a large need for STEC maintenance in production systems handling dairy calves. Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli transmission can occur through contaminated food, contaminated water, environmental exposure, or direct contact, but there is continuously emerging information on the importance of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infection due to foodborne transmission. Although there is some knowledge on Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, there is a literature gap focusing on the epidemiology of the bacteria in veal production systems. This study’s objectives were to compare the prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli genes between the three settings of a veal production system and to compare the variation of prevalence in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli genes between 9 cohorts of calves. Environmental samples were taken from barns, livestock trailers, and slaughterhouse holding pens for each cohort. We focused on 7 serogroup specific genes and 6 virulence factor genes common for all Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. The serogroup specific genes were for O157 and the “big six” non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli: O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145. The 6 virulence factor genes focused on were stx1, stx2, SLT-I, SLT-II, eae, and ehxA. The results show that there was a low level of variation found for the prevalence of genes between the environmental settings of the veal production system. There were only three significantly different gene prevalence found between the three environmental settings. The ehxA prevalence was found to be significantly higher in the slaughterhouse (15%, 13/88) when compared to the barn (0%, 0/48) with a p-value of 0.004. It was also significantly higher in the livestock trailers (13%, 14/104) when compared to the barn (0%, 0/48) with a p-value of 0.005. Lastly, the slaughterhouse also showed a significantly higher prevalence of O157 (5%, 4/88) than the trailer (0%, 0/104) with a p-value of 0.04. Many significant differences in prevalence of genes were identified between the cohorts using the likelihood ratio chi-square test. Likelihood ratio chi square test was used to determine which genes showed significantly different prevalence between the 9 cohorts. SLT-I, SLT-II, eae, ehxA, all had a p-value of <0.0001. The stx1, stx2 genes also had significantly different prevalences across the cohorts with p-values 0.0012 and 0.0003, respectively. Further statistical analysis was done to determine which cohorts showed significantly different prevalence for each gene between each other. Significance levels were tested for each gene between each cohort. This study demonstrates that there is a high variation of prevalence in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli genes between various cohorts of calves within a veal production system. These results can suggest initiating mitigation initiatives at the cohort level for veal production systems. 2020 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1591752682157538 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1591752682157538 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |