Background
Stx2e is a primary virulence factor in STEC strains that cause edema disease in neonatal piglets. Though Stx2a and Stx2e are similar, many antibody-based Stx detection kits are designed to detect Stx2a and do not recognize the Stx2e subtype.
Conclusions
The sensitive immunoassays developed in this study should augment our capacity to detect Stx2e in porcine environments and biological samples. Moreover, immunoassays that can distinguish between the closely related Stx2a, Stx2c, and Stx2d subtypes can be useful in quickly analyzing Stx subtypes in samples containing more than one strain of STEC.