Bielaszewska M, Schmidt H, Liesegang A, Prager R, Rabsch W, Tschäpe H, Cizek A, Janda J, Blahova K, Karch H (2000): Cattle can be a reservoir of sorbitol-fermenting shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H- strains and a source of human diseases
J. Clin. Microbiol. 38 (9): 3470-3473.

Using the immunomagnetic separation procedure, we isolated sorbitol-fermenting (SF) Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H^- strains from two patients, one with hemolytic-uremic syndrome and the other with diarrhea, and from a dairy cow epidemiologically associated with the patients. The phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of all isolates were identical or closely related. Moreover, the bovine isolate showed a clonal relatedness to SF STEC O157:H^- strains isolated from patients in Germany and the Czech Republic from 1988 to 1998. This is the first evidence that cattle can be a reservoir of SF STEC O157:HH^- and a source of human diseases.