Journal article
Persistence of Escherichia coli on injured vegetable plants
D Harapas, R Premier, B Tomkins, P Franz, S Ajlouni
International Journal of Food Microbiology | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2010
Abstract
Minor shoot injury to glasshouse celery, Cos lettuce and chive plants significantly increased the persistence of applied Escherichia coli (P<0.05). After 1week, mean counts of about 5 log10 CFU/g decreased to fewer than 0.5 log10 CFU/g on the uninjured plants, compared to 4 log10 CFU/g or more on injured plants. By the end of the 3-week long experiments, counts from the uninjured plants were 0.21 log10 CFU/g or fewer, but 2.8, 2.3 and 5.1 log10 CFU/g on injured Cos lettuce, celery and chive plants, respectively. A field experiment using Cos lettuce also showed that shoot injury increased E. coli persistence. Counts from the injured plants on days 1, 3, and 7 were, 4.2, 4.1 and 3.3 log10 CFU/..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This research was supported by funding from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Victorian Department of Human Services, and Horticulture Australia Limited, VegFed (The New Zealand Vegetable and Potato Growers Federation), the Australian vegetable growers through the AUSVEG levy, CL & AK Warlan, Lightowler Fowl Manure Pty Ltd, and TD & EC Ou Id Pty Ltd. The authors wish to thank Graham Hepworth for his assistance in the experimental design and statistical analysis; Helen Harapas for her proof reading of the manuscript; and Janyce Truett, Pam Rogers, Siegfried Engleitner Philip Ball, Alan Noon, Trevor Davy, John Howard, Norman Morrison, and Adam Shaw for their help with plant production.