E. coli outbreak at Calgary daycares

Members of the media may directly contact:

Franco Pagotto (English and French)

Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine.

fpagott2@uottawa.ca

Professor Pagotto is a research scientist studying the microbiological safety and control of fresh-cut produce, hazard identification and risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes and Cronobacter species in foods, molecular typing and genomic characterization of foodborne bacterial pathogens, and pathogenesis and virulence determinants of foodborne pathogens.

"The challenge is now finding what was the root cause that led to this outbreak. A facility has been identified based on epidemiological investigations, but there is no information (yet) with respect to detailed findings that may help understand what went wrong or how this could have occurred. Genetic characterization of strains from patients and from eventual foods will help with source attribution."

François-Xavier Campbell-Valois (English and French)

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science

fcampbel@uOttawa.ca

 

Subash Sad (English only)

Full Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine.

Subash.Sad@uOttawa.ca

Professor Sad's expertise includes bacterial pathogens with the immune system, using cell biological and genomic approaches to decipher the mechanisms involved.