Ferrets as a Model System for Renal Disease Secondary to Intestinal Infection withEscherichia coliO157:H7 and Other Shiga Toxin–ProducingE. coli
Open Access
- 15 February 2002
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 185 (4) , 550-554
- https://doi.org/10.1086/338633
Abstract
Ferrets were evaluated as a possible small animal model for the development of colitis and/or signs of the hemolytic uremic syndrome after oral infection with Escherichia coliO157:H7 or other Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Ferrets treated with streptomycin (Stm) had higher counts of E. coliO157:H7 strain 86-24 Stm-resistant (Stm5) or O91:H21 strain B2F1 Stm5 in their stools than non-Stm-treated animals. None of the animals displayed evidence of colitis, but Stmtreated animals fed strain 86-24 Stm5 exhibited weight loss significantly greater than that exhibited by ferrets fed an isogenic mutant negative for the adhesin intimin. Moreover, 11 (23%) of the 47 Stm-treated ferrets inoculated with 86-24 Stm5 or B2F1 Stm5 developed hematuria and/or histological damage to glomeruli or thrombocytopenia, compared with 0 of 14 uninfected control animals receiving Stm in water. Thus, the ferret may serve as a model for renal disease secondary to intestinal infection with STEC.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: