Occasionally vomiting occurs. Fever is either low-grade or absent. Some individuals exhibit watery diarrhea only. It lives in the intestinal tracts of mammals and man.
Some cattle carry the bacteria.
It can be transferred from animal to animal, animal to man, from animal to man on food, and from person to person through close contact or food. If present, it can multiply slowly even at 44 F. Thorough cooking to 160 F is the best safeguard against infection. The O157 pathogen was recognized in 1982 after the investigation of two outbreaks of a bloody diarrhea syndrome. The outbreaks were traced to undercooked hamburgers served from a fast food chain. Since 1983, an increasing number of O157 infections have been reported in the United States.