Thermo Fisher Scientific has responded to the E coli O104 crisis in Europe by increasing production and distribution of its Brilliance ESBL Agar plate.
The chromogenic screening plate is designed for the detection of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase-producing (ESBL) organisms, such as the outbreak strain, within 24 hours.
With worldwide concern over E coli O104, food microbiologists need to ensure that they can detect enterohaemorrhagic E coli (EHEC) in foods, water and food-processing environments in order to prevent, investigate or combat outbreaks of EHEC-related food poisoning.
The current outbreak highlights the importance of rapid and reliable identification of EHEC, which cause bloody diarrhoea and haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), for the assurance of food safety.
Historically, most outbreaks of HUS have been associated with E coli O157, but the current outbreak strain belongs to the E coli O104 serogroup.
The causative strain produces Shiga toxin 2 and shows high resistance to third-generation cephalosporins (due to ESBL resistance mechanism), as well as broad antimicrobial resistance to, among others, trimethoprim/sulphonamide and tetracycline.
Media to detect ESBL are among the methods recommended when screening for the outbreak strain.
