isolates, including the “big six” serovars, O104 and O157:H7. STEC isolates included those from animals and environmental sources in addition to those associated with illness in humans. Individual STEC were
inoculated into 80% lean ground beef and treated with HPP (350 MPa, 4 C, up to 40 min). The mean D10 was 9.74 min, with a range of 0.89e25.70 min. The D10 of the STEC involved in human illness was 9.25 vs. 10.40 min for those not involved in human illness (p > 0.05). The presence or absence of genes encoding virulence factors (e.g. Shiga toxin 1 or 2, intimin, or enterohemolysin) had no effect on the HPP D10 (p > 0.05).