Detection of Shiga-like toxin producing Escherichia coli from raw milk cheeses produced in Wallonia [Belgium]

Shiga-like toxin Escherichia coli (STEC) implicated in aqueous diarrhoea, haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic uraemic syndrome, has become a serious health problem in various countries. In Belgium, all cases are sporadic and no outbreak has been detected so far. Cattle are thought to be a reservoir for E. coli O157:H7, and many foodborne diseases have been associated with the consumption of minced beef, beefburgers and raw milk. Recently, foodborne outbreaks were concerned with different unusual foods such as acidic products. Although some data suggest that STEC are not prevalent within dairy products, the aim of this work was to assess the prevalence of E. coli O157 and non-O157 STEC in raw milk cheeses produced in the southern part of Belgium (Wallonia). For this purpose, 153 frozen samples of soft and semi-soft cheeses made with raw cow, ewe and goat milk were analysed for the presence of E. coli O157 and STEC. By using a dynabeads immunomagnetic separation technique (Dynabeads anti-E. coli O157, Dynal) followed by streaking onto sorbitol MacConckey agar, no sample was found contaminated by E. coli O157 serotype. By using polymerase chain reaction achieved from a loopful of confluent bacterial material growing onto MacConckey agar, the use of consensus primers detected stx genes in 11.1/ of the samples but Shiga-like toxin producing strains could be isolated only in five of them (3.3/). The isolation rate seems to be optimum for samples with a thermotolerant coliform count arround or below 102 cfu per g. The five Shiga-like toxin isolates were identified as belonging to the species Hafnia alvei or Enterobacter amnigenius without any accessory virulence factors needed to cause illness. Nevertheless, because of the ability of STEC to survive adverse conditions and the possibility for commensal non-pathogenic enteric bacteria to become pathogenic, raw milk cheeses are to be considered at risk for foodborne STEC contamination.