Strain typing and the ecological structure of escherichia coli

David M. Gordon

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Escherichia coil is a commonly encountered commensal of the lower intestinal tract of humans and other mammals. Strains of the species are responsible for a significant amount of human morbidity and mortality each year. Consequently, numerous efforts attempt to track the movement of hospital-acquired infections, determine the source of a foodborne disease outbreak, or investigate the seasonal patterns of pathogen abundance in domestic animals. All of these endeavors require that the isolates acquired be differentiated from each other in some manner. This review briefly describes some of the commonly used molecular typing methods for E. coil. However, the main aim of the review is to describe the many levels, from the species to individual strains, at which E. coil can be considered, and to contend that a hierarchical approach to strain typing may often reveal patterns that are not obvious when a typing scheme is simply designed to differentiate isolates.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)974-984
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of AOAC International
    Volume93
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

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