STEC Center
The Thomas S. Whittam Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) Center was created by the late Tom Whittam to facilitate research on (STEC) and close relatives by providing a standard reference collection of well-characterized strains and central on-line accessible databases. Currently, the Center does the following:
- Serves as a repository for the deposition of STEC and other foodborne pathogens from human patients, animal reservoirs, and environments. The collection has over 16,000 bacterial strains.
- Distributes sets of strains for use by investigators. See the reference strains below for a list of the most commonly requested strains.
- Characterizes subsets of STEC using genetic markers of clonal identity and virulence genes (e.g., stx, eae).
For non-profit organizations, the cost is $7.00/ strain, while for-profit organizations pay $120/strain plus shipping charges. Importantly, STEC cannot be exported outside the U.S.
STEC reference sets available upon request
The following reference sets represent the most commonly requested strains in the STEC Center collection. Additional strains are available upon request. Please indicate which traits you are interested in (e.g., stx profile, eae, O-type, etc.) and the number of strains you would like to receive in your request.
Strain requests can be sent to Shannon Manning at stec@cvm.msu.edu
Escherichia coli reference (ECOR) set
Diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC) set