Tag Archives: E. coli

USA: Five more sick in multistate E. coli O121 outbreak

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The US Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) recently announced five more Escherichia coli O121 infec­tions linked to Farm Rich frozen food snacks, rais­ing the out­break total to 32. Accord­ing to an 26 April 2013 update, three more states are report­ing cases, lift­ing the affected num­ber to 18. States report­ing their first cases include Cal­i­for­nia, Col­orado, and Florida. Nine patients have been hos­pi­tal­ized so far, two of them with hemolytic ure­mic syn­drome, a poten­tially fatal kid­ney com­pli­ca­tion. Inves­ti­ga­tions so far point to the Farm Rich prod­ucts as one likely infec­tion source, but the CDC and state offi­cials are inter­view­ing sick patients to deter­mine what other expo­sures they had the week before they became ill. Ear­lier stages of the inves­ti­ga­tion found the E. coli O121 out­break strain in two dif­fer­ent prod­ucts from the homes of sick patients. The out­break was first announced on 29 March 2013, and the com­pany has recalled more than 10.5 mil­lion pounds of not fully cooked frozen mini meals and snack items.

Addi­tional infor­ma­tion avail­able at http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2013/O121-03–13/index.html

(CIDRAP 4/29/2013)

Detection of NDM-7 in Germany, a new variant of the New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase with increased carbapenemase activity

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Göt­tig S, Ham­precht AG, Christ S, et al. J. Antimi­crob. Chemother. 3 April 2013. doi:10.1093/jac/dkt088.
Avail­able at http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/04/03/jac.dkt088.abstract

Objec­tives. This study char­ac­ter­ized a new vari­ant of the New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM).

Meth­ods. A multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli iso­late was recov­ered from the wounds, throat and rec­tum of a Yemeni patient who pre­sented at the Frank­furt Uni­ver­sity Hos­pi­tal in Ger­many. The pres­ence of β-lactamase genes was analysed by PCR and sequenc­ing. The iso­late was fur­ther char­ac­ter­ized by sus­cep­ti­bil­ity test­ing, con­ju­ga­tion and trans­for­ma­tion assays and plas­mid analysis.

Results. The E. coli iso­late was resis­tant to all β-lactams includ­ing car­bapen­ems. By PCR analy­sis, the β-lactamase genes blaCMY-2, blaCTX-M-15, blaTEM-1 and blaNDM were iden­ti­fied. Sequenc­ing revealed a blaNDM gene that dif­fered from blaNDM-1 by two point muta­tions at posi­tions 388 (G→A) and 460 (A→C) cor­re­spond­ing to amino acid sub­sti­tu­tions Asp130Asn and Met154Leu, respec­tively. This NDM vari­ant was iden­ti­fied as NDM-7. The blaNDM-7 gene was located on a self-transferable IncX3 plas­mid of 60 kb. E. coli TOP10 trans­for­mants har­bour­ing NDM-7 showed higher MICs of β-lactams includ­ing car­bapen­ems com­pared with trans­for­mants har­bour­ing NDM-1. Mul­ti­lo­cus sequence typ­ing analy­sis revealed that the E. coli iso­late belonged to a novel sequence type (ST599).

Con­clu­sions. This study iden­ti­fied a novel NDM vari­ant in E. coli, NDM-7, pos­sess­ing a high abil­ity to hydrol­yse β-lactam antibi­otics. Given the diver­sity of NDM vari­ants located on self-transferable plas­mids found in dif­fer­ent Gram-negative species and iso­lated in dif­fer­ent coun­tries, the blaNDM gene will most likely effi­ciently dis­sem­i­nate worldwide.

USA: Multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O121 infections linked to Farm Rich brand frozen food products

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A total of 27 per­sons infected with the out­break strain of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O121 (STEC O121) have been reported from 15 states. 81% of ill per­sons are 21 years of age or younger. 35% of ill per­sons have been hos­pi­tal­ized. Two ill peo­ple devel­oped hemolytic ure­mic syn­drome (HUS), a type of kid­ney fail­ure, and no deaths have been reported.

CDC and state pub­lic health offi­cials are inter­view­ing ill per­sons to obtain infor­ma­tion regard­ing foods they might have eaten and other expo­sures in the week before ill­ness. Infor­ma­tion avail­able to date indi­cates that con­sump­tion of Farm Rich brand frozen food prod­ucts is one likely source of infec­tion for the ill per­sons in this outbreak.

The out­break strain of STEC O121 has been iden­ti­fied in two dif­fer­ent Farm Rich brand frozen prod­ucts col­lected from the homes of two ill per­sons. The Out­breaks Sec­tion of the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture Food Safety and Inspec­tion Ser­vice (USDA-FSIS) East­ern Lab­o­ra­tory iden­ti­fied the out­break strain from indi­vid­u­ally wrapped Farm Rich brand frozen mini pizza slices from an opened pack­age col­lected from an ill person’s home in Texas. The New York State Depart­ment of Health, Wadsworth Cen­ter Lab­o­ra­tory, iden­ti­fied the out­break strain from an opened pack­age of Farm Rich brand frozen chicken que­sadil­las from an ill person’s home.

On April 4, 2013, Rich Prod­ucts Cor­po­ra­tion expanded its recall to include all Farm Rich, Mar­ket Day, and Schwan’s brand frozen food prod­ucts pro­duced at its Way­cross, Geor­gia plant between 1 July 1 2011 and 29 March 2013 due to pos­si­ble con­t­a­m­i­na­tion with E. coli O121. The recalled prod­ucts had “Best By” dates rang­ing from 1 Jan­u­ary 2013 to 29 Sep­tem­ber 2014.

USDA-FSIS and the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) are also cur­rently con­duct­ing inves­ti­ga­tions to deter­mine the source of prod­uct contamination.

Addi­tional infor­ma­tion avail­able at http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2013/O121-03–13/index.html

(USCDC 4/5/2013)