Occurrence and phenotypic properties of verotoxin producing Escherichia coli in sporadic cases of gastroenteritis.

Five verotoxin producing Escherichia coli strains were detected in 405 patients with infectious gastroenteritis and 3 such strains were detected in 11 patients with the hemolytic uremic syndrome in Switzerland. Production of verotoxin 2 was associated with the latter three strains. Four strains reacted with the probe for the virulence plasmid of Escherichia coli O157:H7, and six reacted with a recently described probe for the eae gene of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. None of the strains was of serotype O157:H7. The methods available at present for detecting toxins or toxin genes will reliably detect all such verotoxin producing strains.