MI006-06 Clonal Protection and Pathogenicity of ETEC

Infections with enterotoxigenic (ETEC) are important causes of travelers’ diarrhea, food-
related diarrheal outbreaks, diarrhea in the armed forces, and of diarrhea and diarrheal deaths among children living in developing countries. Considerable efforts are being made to develop interventions that can reduce the spread of and the impact these organisms have on human health. This work is hampered by the fact that ETEC comprise a heterogeneous group of diarrheal pathogens, and little is still known about how different types of ETEC differs with respect to pathogenic potential, antigenic properties, or any other epidemiologically relevant traits. In the proposed project, we will investigate the clonal relatedness of 872 well characterized ETEC strains that were isolated from a cohort of 200 young children over a 2 year time period. The children live in an area in West Africa where ETEC infections are endemic, and stool specimens were collected weekly and regardless of whether the children had diarrhea. The main objective of the pr oposed project is to identify the major ETEC clones and clone complexes that circulate in the population, and to describe epidemiological traits that members from each family exhibit.