Laboratory surveillance of Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli in South Australia and the Hunter Health Area, New South Wales, Australia.

To estimate the prevalence of Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli in Australia, bloody stool samples from two Australian locations were screened for the presence of Shiga toxin genes, stx1 and stx2. Four of 126 (3.2%) and 139 of 5,829 (2.

Investigation of spa pools associated with lung disorders caused by Mycobacterium avium complex in immunocompetent adults.

Three cases of Mycobacterium avium complex-related lung disorders were associated with two poorly maintained spa pools by genotypic investigations. Inadequate disinfection of the two spas had reduced the load of environmental bacteria to less than 1 CFU/ml but allowed levels of M. avium complex of 4.

Phenotypic and genotypic relationship between Campylobacter spp isolated from humans and chickens in Northern Ireland--a comparison of three phenotyping and two genotyping schemes.

Human campylobacteriosis is currently the most common cause of acute bacterial gastroenteritis on the island of Ireland, accounting for over 3,000 laboratory reports per year, where circa 2,000 reports originate from the Republic of Ireland and circa 1,000 reports from Northern Ireland. Elsewhere, consumption of contaminated poultry has been associated with the zoonotic transmission of disease, therefore it was the aim of this study to examine the phenotypic and genotypic relatedness of campylobacters isolated from chickens and humans locally. Sixty isolates were subtyped using phenotyping techniques (biotyping, phage-typing), as well as genotyping techniques (multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE), ribotyping) and the data compared.

Legionella pneumophila mip gene sequencing to investigate a cluster of pneumonia cases.

Aims: To use fluorescent antibody (FA) and PCR studies on fixed lung tissue to investigate whether Legionella pneumophila was the cause of pneumonia in a cluster of three haematology patients.

Methods: Cut sections of paraffin blocks of lung tissue were examined by direct FA (DFA) using fluorescently labelled antibody to serogroup 1 and Pontiac strains of L. pneumophila.

A mutation in an ompR-like gene on a Legionella longbeachae serogroup 1 plasmid attenuates virulence.

Examination of a panel of Legionella longbeachae serogroup 1 strains using a guinea pig model of virulence determined that this clonal species of Legionella shows a remarkable variation in symptoms and disease outcome (Doyle et al., Infect. Immun.