A glimpse of Escherichia coli O157:H7 survival in soils from eastern China.

Abstract Escherichia coli O157:H7 ( E. coli O157:H7) is an important food-borne pathogen, which continues to be a major public health concern worldwide. It is known that E. coli O157:H7 survive in soil environment might result in the contamination of fresh produce or water source. To investigate how the soils and their properties affect E. coli O157:H7 survival, we studied E. coli O157:H7 survival dynamics in 14 soils collected in eastern China from the warm-temperate zone to subtropical zone. Results showed that E. coli O157:H7 survival as a function of time can be well described by the Weibull model. The calculated t d values (survival time to reach the detection limit, 100 colony forming units per gram oven-dried weight of soil) for the test soils were between 1.4 and 25.8 days. A significantly longer survival time ( t d ) was observed in neutral or alkaline soils from north-eastern China (the warm-temperate zone) than that in acidic soils from south-eastern China (the subtropical zone). Distinct E. coli O157:H7 survival dynamics was related to soil properties. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the t d values were significantly enhanced by soil microbial biomass carbon and total nitrogen, but were significantly reduced by amorphous Al 2 O 3 and relative abundance of Chloroflexi . It should pay more attention to E. coli O157:H7 long survival in soils and its potential environmental contamination risk.