If there has been no outbreak of E. coli in India, we have a very unusual substance to thank — the humble gobar or cow dung — used liberally all over the country.
According to an Indo-German research team, the bacterium, Escherichia coli, which is creating havoc in Europe, has been kept at bay by our age old practice of using natural manure in agriculture and elsewhere.
The dung of cows and buffaloes contains enterohaemorrhogic E. coli (EHEC), which is more harmful and virulent than the ordinary strains of E. coli that live in human beings. But because Indians have been used to handling gobar for almost five millennia, we have developed immunity to this virulent strain. It is the mutant EHEC that is causing havoc in Germany and other European countries.
“What is baffling is that India has never witnessed outbreaks of E. coli though it could in fact be a breeding ground for the pathogen because of the unhygienic conditions,” points out Dr Lothar Wieler, director of the Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, Freie University, Germany.
Dr Lothar and research teams from the University of Hyderabad, CCMB and Mahavir Hospital are enga-ged in research on E.coli. India has seen regular outbreaks of cholera, but never institutionalised outbreaks of gastroenteritis caused by E. coli, unlike in Europe and the Americas.
The inherent immunity to E. coli that Indians seem to enjoy, has forced the German teams to trace the history of the bacteria by taking to the field, to see if they can discover the natural descent of the strain.
