Prevalence of <i>Escherichia albertii</i> in Raccoons (<i>Procyon lotor</i>), Japan
Atsushi Hinenoya, Keigo Nagano, Sharda Prasad Awasthi, Noritoshi Hatanaka, Shinji Yamasaki
Abstract
E scherichia albertii is a gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacterium and an emerging human enteropathogen. This bacterium belongs to the group of attaching and effacing pathogens, which can form pedestal-structured lesions on intestinal epithelium by using an eae-encoded adhesin called intimin and a type 3 secretion system. E. albertii commonly carries cytolethal distending toxin genes; in addition, certain strains carry Shiga toxin 2 (stx2a, stx2f) genes (1), suggesting that E. albertii has a potential to cause severe diseases such as hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome in humans, similar to Shiga toxinproducing E. coli. An increase in human outbreaks and sporadic cases of E. albertii have been reported recently from several countries, including Japan (1-3). However, the reservoir and transmission routes of E. albertii to humans have not yet been identified. We surveyed wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) captured in Osaka, Japan, for the presence of E. albertii to determine if raccoons could be a reservoir of E. albertii in Japan.