STEC survey and characterisation

1. Undertake a qualitative and quantitative survey of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in major beef products exported to the EU and USA. This would include manufacturing beef and raw ground beef components. 2. STEC isolates will be assessed against internationally proposed risk schemes and characterised for serotype, virulence, AMR genes and other markers relevant to understanding human health risk. 3. Isolates recovered will be sequenced and compared with strains from MLA/CSIRO project V.MFS.0440. 4. Further characterisation of STEC will be performed on isolates recovered from V.MFS.0440.