2020 Volume 73 Issue 4 Pages 191-194
Escherichia albertii is recognized as an emerging gastrointestinal pathogen in humans and several foodborne outbreaks have been reported in Japan. However, it is difficult to differentiate this organism from entero-pathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and entero-hemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) due to its poorly defined biochemical characteristics. We have isolated and identified an isolate as E. albertii from the feces of a healthy domestic dog. The isolate harbored the intimin gene (eae ) and cytolethal distending toxin gene (cdt ), but lacked the Shiga toxin gene (stx2f ). Moreover, the isolate was resistant to penicillin, ampicillin, and erythromycin, as reported elsewhere. The current study suggests that domestic dogs may act as a reservoir for this organism, transmitting it to humans.
