Enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC, is a verotoxin producing, zoonotic pathogen, which causes diseases in humans such as bloody or watery diarrhea. Microorganisms compete for limited living space, nutrients and other resources and therefore other microorganisms are EHECs biggest competitors. To avoid outbreaks and infections with EHEC, one possible approach is to use harmless but competitive bacteria as probiotics. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate three probiotic E. coli strains and their ability to outcompete EHEC in bovine feces. Ten different cattle fecal samples from three different farms were used to mix with the three probiotic and EHEC strains. The mixture was diluted and cultivated at 0 h as a control and then incubated for 48 h at 20°C and 37°C before dilution and cultivation on CT-SMaC. Colonies was counted and ratios between EHEC and probiotic E. coli before and after incubation were calculated. Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s test as post hoc test were used to see if observed reductions of EHEC were significant or not. In 37°C, strain 10 was the only strain producing a significant reduction of EHEC. In contrast, no significant reduction was observed at 20°C in any of the strains. Future research studying other factors and performed on live cattle models are necessary to confirm the usefulness of the studied probiotic candidates. However, these results indicate probiotics can be a useful tool to avoid infections and big outbreaks of EHEC in the future.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-353248 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Stigers, Linnea |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för kvinnors och barns hälsa |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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