Escherichia Coli (abbreviated E.Coli) are rod-shaped bacteria commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E.coli strains are harmless, but some types cause serious food poisoning in humans, and they are responsible for product recalls due to food contamination. Fecal-oral transmission is the major route through which the E. coli can cause disease. E. coli ais able to survive outside the body for a limited amount of time, which makes them ideal indicator organisms to test environmental samples for fecal contamination.
Virulent strains of E. coli can cause gastroenteritis (gastrointestinal disease), urinary tract infections, and neonatal meningitis (diseases of the nervous system) and are also responsible for hemolytic-uremic syndrome (blood disease), peritonitis (abdominal disease), mastitis (disease of the breast tissue), septicemia (shock) and Gram-negative pneumonia.
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