Review of the Food-borne Zoonoses Research ... - ARCHIVE: Defra

produced were both relevant and important and had contributed significantly to the
evidence base for VTEC O157. A large number of scientific publications had been
generated.
The work on sheep and goats has been of value in the control of transfer of infection to
humans from animals on open farms. It has also provided new information on the
mechanism of long term colonisation of E. coli O157 and the potential role of other
strains as natural antagonists against infection. The results from challenge studies in pigs
and poultry have raised many questions as these indicate that both species are
susceptible to E. coli O157. In practice, poultry meat and pig meat and also contact with
poultry and pigs have not proved to be a risk for human infection, despite the large
population of free range pigs and poultry in England. This contradiction needs to be
better understood, for example by studying the influence of natural intestinal flora on as
potential antagonists for E. coli O157.
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