ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a database and to understand the molecular epidemiological features of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates from different animal reservoirs and patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed according to the PulseNet protocol with minor modifications. A dendrogram was constructed using the BioNumerics.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Under the PulseNet protocol, 62 PFGE patterns were obtained from 76 non-O157 STEC isolates and then divided into A to M groups. Isolates from different sources were widely distributed in different groups, but were predominant seen in certain groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The non-O157 STEC isolates in China were highly polymorphic. PulseNet protocol seemed to be suitable for the typing of Chinese non-O157 STEC isolates.</p>