EN
E. coli strains isolated from cattle (7 strains) and from children with diarrhea (7 strains) were tested for shiga toxin (stxl and stx2), intimin (eae), and enterohemolysin (ehly) virulence marker genes using PCR. Moreover, the eae genes were further classified by determination of α, β, δ, and ε variants. It was shown that all strains possessed the eae and ehly genetic determinants, as well as genes for stxl (3 strains), stx2 (7 strains) or both toxins (4 strains). PCR amplifications performed with eae-specific primers showed that all 12 O157 isolates were eae γ-positive whereas two strains of O26 serogroup harboured the eae β gene. The obtained results demonstrated that shiga toxin-producing (STEC) E. coli of human and cattle origin isolated in Poland possessed very similar or identical virulence markers.