Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli in Marmots

Of a total of 200 Marmots sampled between July and August 2013, 51 were from Zhongdaxiang (with an altitude of 3599.6 m above sea level (a.s.l)), 120 from Dezhuotan (3025 m a.s.l), and 29 from Dedacun (3625.6 m a.s.l), respectively. The Marmots were captured by cages in the field and sampled in the laboratory of local Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The intestinal contents were collected in 2 ml sterile tubes containing Luria-Bertani (LB) medium in 30% glycerol, which were stored at −20 °C immediately and transported to the laboratory in the National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing. Strains were isolated and confirmed to be STEC by the methods we previously described^{11 (link),13 (link)}. Briefly, enriched samples in E. coli broth (Land Bridge, Beijing, China) were examined by PCR for the presence of stx genes with primers stx1F/Stx1R and Stx2F/Stx2R respectively^{13 (link)}. PCR-positive enrichments were then streaked onto CHROMagar^TM ECC agar (CHROMagar, Paris, France), and MacConkey agar (Oxoid, Hampshire, UK). Colonies resembling E. coli were picked and tested for stx genes by single colony duplex PCR assay. Serotyping, detection of main STEC-related virulence factors (stx, eae, ehxA, efa1, saa, paa, toxB, and astA), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were conducted as we previously described^{11 (link),13 (link)}.