Enterohemolysin blood agar medium

For EHEC screening!

If a colony suspected of EHEC is recognized from the culture medium, the traditional procedure has been to isolate the E. coli, identify it based on biochemical characteristics, serotype it, and conduct a VT production test. This requires significant effort, cost, and time. Based on reports indicating a high correlation between VT production and enterohemolysin production in EHEC, our company has prepared "Enterohemolysin Blood Agar Medium," which can efficiently detect enterohemolysin production through hemolytic phenomena, and we propose a simple screening method. We believe that conducting the VT production test based on hemolytic characteristics after culture is the simplest, fastest, and most economical screening method. This medium allows for the inoculation of multiple strains on a single plate and is considered to be highly valuable as a method for screening EHEC from many isolated E. coli strains.

basic information

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a pathogenic toxin-producing bacterium that causes severe infections in humans. Diseases caused by this bacterium are accompanied by hemorrhagic diarrhea (hemorrhagic colitis) and may lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The main characteristic of EHEC is the production of Shiga toxin (ST), also known as verotoxin (VT). Under the Infectious Diseases Control Law (enacted in 1999), it is classified as a Class III infectious disease pathogen and is treated as a causative agent of infections. Additionally, the Hygiene Management Manual for Large-Scale Food Preparation Facilities (Notification No. 0618005) mandates regular health check-ups and fecal examinations that include testing for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) at least once a month. Transitioning from EHEC O157 testing to EHEC testing has made the process quite complicated, as it requires the use of multiple types of culture media (such as CT-SMAC, CT-RMAC, CT-SBMAC, etc.) for EHEC testing.