Summary

Verocytotoxin-producing E.coli (VTEC/STEC) confirmed by ERL in 2016. During 2016 a total of 488 cultures and broths were confirmed as containing verocytotoxin producing E coli (compared with 343 in 2015.) This increase is most likely due to it being the first full year during which molecular testing for Enteric pathogens was undertaken in the Auckland region. Alongside of this was an increase in the number of samples from which VTEC was detected but the toxin producing organism could not be isolated in pure culture. Our proportion of culture confirmed VTEC is similar to that of other National Reference Laboratories and is due to culture independent detection testing (CIDT) such as that described above detecting very low organism numbers as well as the dead, the dying, and the broken organisms.  Thus we would expect CIDT to yield more positive detections than culture.