An evaluation of immunomagnetic separation-real-time PCR (IMS-RTiPCR) combined assay for rapid and specific detection of escherichia coli o157:H7 in raw milk and ground beef

The aim of this study is to optimize a rapid and specific method for detection of E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC) from food samples with high background flora using an immunomagnetic separation-real-time polymerase chain reaction assay (IMS-RTiPCR). For this, EHEC cells were recovered from raw milk and ground meat samples that were artificially contaminated to the final concentrations of 10¹, 10³ and 10⁵ cfu EHEC/mL or g, after a non-selective pre-enrichment at 35 °C for 8 h following either with or without capturing by micro-sized beads. Then, EHEC cells were identified by RTiPCR. The study was also carried out without any enrichment to evaluate the enrichment efficiency of the assay. By comparing the assay with and without pre-enrichment, we showed that even the usage of specific micro-sized beads did not improve EHEC detection in raw milk and ground beef samples and so gave false negative results unless an 8-h pre-enrichment was applied. Besides, the assay can be completed in less than 9 h with a minimum detection limit of 10³ cfu EHEC/mL or g in foods and hence was found to be simple routine-based method that exhibits great potential for implementing as a rapid screening of EHEC in microbial tests as compared to existing techniques.