Digital PCR Rapid Detection of Virulent E. coli in Meat Products

Description:Researcherswith the Kansas State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab have created a newdiagnostic technology that rapidly identifies virulence gene carrying Shigatoxin-producing E. coli pre- &post-harvest to improve the food safety of meat products for humans and pets.Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (“STEC”) is a major foodborne pathogen that causes more than 73,000human illnesses and 20-60 deaths in the US each year.  Only certain serogroups of STEC, i.e., O157, O26,O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145 are of the most importance for public health,especially those that carry eae(codes for intimin), stx1 (codes forShiga toxin 1), and stx2 (codes forShiga toxin 2) genes.  USDA Food Safetyand Inspection Services (“FSIS”) requires the industry to test non-intact beefproducts (mainly ground beef and materials used for ground beef production) toconfirm they are free of E. coli O157STEC.  Regulations for testing six other serogroups (non-O157) will be inplace soon, creating the need for higher efficiency diagnostic tools.  The current FSIS testing protocols involve a conformationalculture isolation procedure that normally takes a week to generate results.  The main reason that culture-isolation isrequired and used most is because traditional PCR-based detection methods arenot able to associate the virulence genes with the STEC O-groups.  Virulence genes can be carried by differentbacterial strains in the sample, but only the STEC O-groups that carry certain virulence genes are consideredimportant for food safety.  Digital PCR greatly improves the efficiency over traditionalPCR by reducing the time required from one week to two days.  As an added advantage, Digitial PCR can alsostreamline the sample preparation and detection processes into a highthroughput setting, especially when the 48-sample format is used.Using our technology, samples can be collected from bacterialcultures, pre-harvest cattle feces & post-harvest meat products providingour commercialization partner(s) flexibility depending on application.Advantages: Quicker:  twodays versus one week for the traditional methodHigh-throughput format capabilityFlexibility in the type of sample that can be usedPatent StatusUS Patent Application #15/543,712 filed on July 14, 2017.Kansas State University Research Foundation seeks to have discussions with companies that are interested in licensing and/or research collaborations.Interested parties should contact:Kansas State University Institute for Commercialization (KSU-IC)2005 Research Park Circle Manhattan, KS 66502Tel: 785-532-3900 Fax: 785-532-3909E-Mail: ic@k-state.edu

USA