Kind of surprised that there isn't a thread about this already, or maybe I'm looking in the wrong sub-forum...
Anyways, last night officials announced that the most likely source of this E. coli outbreak is from bean sprouts grown in Germany, which is a huge embarrassment for Germany after initially blaming the Spanish. Bean sprouts, have long been a source of both E.coli and Salmonella sp. caused illnesses over the years.
When the story first broke, there were many that were calling this a new or novel strain of E. coli. That was based on the sequencing of the genome, which actually breaks the genomic DNA up into about a few thousand pieces. The technology used is quite marvelous, it allows for rapid sequencing of genomes by using basically the world's smallest pH meter, to measure the H+ ions that are released when nucleotides are added to templates and incorporated into a strand of DNA.
Anyways, it turns out that initial reports of this sequence being novel were wrong. Once the sequence was published, labs around the world could begin analyzing the data. Using other techniques, such as multi-locus sequencing typing (think of it as being able to tell the difference between plagiaized copies of work, by analyzing the percentage of overlap, only with the DNA it's the addition of new words or letters to the same word).
The end result-which by the way is a marvel of modern science communication- is that this particular E. coli has been encountered before, in 2001 to be exact. There is a database that molecular results can be used to search for, and sure enough, this strain is a match for ST678 typing.
Google Translate
(Google translated from German)
It's pretty remarkable in this day and age that scientists can confirm their results using different sequencing techniques, with colleagues so far away, and so quickly. I get the feeling sometimes that the public doesn't understand how difficult this can be, such as with new flu types...
A nice bit of work, now let's hope they can get all the contaminated food recalled, and work towards meaningful changes with respect to food safety. Germany actually has better access to illness reports than Canada does...this easily could happen here. I was particularly concerned with the lack of response from Canada Food Inspection Agency...
Anyways, last night officials announced that the most likely source of this E. coli outbreak is from bean sprouts grown in Germany, which is a huge embarrassment for Germany after initially blaming the Spanish. Bean sprouts, have long been a source of both E.coli and Salmonella sp. caused illnesses over the years.
When the story first broke, there were many that were calling this a new or novel strain of E. coli. That was based on the sequencing of the genome, which actually breaks the genomic DNA up into about a few thousand pieces. The technology used is quite marvelous, it allows for rapid sequencing of genomes by using basically the world's smallest pH meter, to measure the H+ ions that are released when nucleotides are added to templates and incorporated into a strand of DNA.
Anyways, it turns out that initial reports of this sequence being novel were wrong. Once the sequence was published, labs around the world could begin analyzing the data. Using other techniques, such as multi-locus sequencing typing (think of it as being able to tell the difference between plagiaized copies of work, by analyzing the percentage of overlap, only with the DNA it's the addition of new words or letters to the same word).
The end result-which by the way is a marvel of modern science communication- is that this particular E. coli has been encountered before, in 2001 to be exact. There is a database that molecular results can be used to search for, and sure enough, this strain is a match for ST678 typing.
Google Translate
(Google translated from German)
It's pretty remarkable in this day and age that scientists can confirm their results using different sequencing techniques, with colleagues so far away, and so quickly. I get the feeling sometimes that the public doesn't understand how difficult this can be, such as with new flu types...
A nice bit of work, now let's hope they can get all the contaminated food recalled, and work towards meaningful changes with respect to food safety. Germany actually has better access to illness reports than Canada does...this easily could happen here. I was particularly concerned with the lack of response from Canada Food Inspection Agency...
