What's New
E. Coli May Find New Ways to Thrive as Climate Changes
July 5, 2010
Ten years after the Walkerton, Ont., tragedy, a University of Guelph professor says deadly E. coli bacteria adapting to a changing climate may pose new public health dangers to water and soil.
A new review paper co-authored by Prof. Jack Trevors, School of Environmental Sciences, warns that different forms of E. coli — particularly the pathogenic O157:H7 strain that killed seven people and sickened thousands more in Walkerton in 2000 — may find new ways to thrive in a warming environment.
The paper, titled “Survival of Escherichia coli in the Environment: Fundamental and Public Health Aspects,” appeared in June in The ISME Journal, published by the International Society for Microbial Ecology.
The paper was co-authored by researchers in the Netherlands and Portugal.
