Science and Technology for Canadians

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Summary

In the late 1970's Health Canada was instrumental in developing research tests and methods to distinguish different types of the bacteria E. coli and Campylobacter -- the first steps to even recognising that these bugs were linked to human disease at all. E. coli (sometimes known as hamburger disease, but also sprouts etc.) and Campylobacter are both bacteria that are major causes of serious gastro-intestinal illness in the public and may be the most common cause of kidney failure in children. Early research on this bacteria was done by researchers at Health Canada, (the Bureau of Microbiology Laboratories), especially work done by Hermy Lior. His unique methods became a world wide standard known as Lior typing system.

Transcript of Video

Jay Ingram
If you eat chicken for dinner tonight and you don't get sick, that could be thanks to the work of a very determined Canadian scientist. His detective work helps doctors match patients infected with bacteria with the food that may have triggered the illness... and that step could prevent a nasty bug from spreading even further.

Gillian Deacon
You could say that this bacterium is disease waiting to happen. It's found in 30 to 100 percent of the chicken we buy, and if we are not careful about how we handle and cook that chicken, the consequences can be nasty.

Hermy Lior
In Canada and in many, many countries around the world, the most common bacteria causing human diarrhea are Campylobacters.

David Woodward
In Canada we see between 12 and 14 thousand laboratory confirmed cases annually. But the actual numbers are probably about 40 times higher, and I would say that within the range of 200 - 500 thousand cases would not be unrealistic.

Gillian Deacon
Infections can range from mild to serious. Campylobacter, or Campy for short, is actually a group of bacteria that infects animals and often finds its way into humans. Along with poultry, it can be found in beef, unpasteurized milk, and contaminated water. In the 1970's few of the bacteria had been identified, or fingerprinted. There was no way to match the Campy found in stool samples to the suspected source. In 1977, a Canadian scientist took on the challenge of tracking the elusive bacteria, and getting those fingerprints on file.

Hermy Lior
We wanted to be ready with the methods in place to be able to distinguish to help epidemiology in tracing of bacterial infections. It wasn't easy because we didn't know – we know very little if we knew about these bacteria – we didn't know how they grow. We didn't know absolutely nothing. We knew that we can isolate them. But beyond that what happens in the lab, how we can get them to do certain things in the lab – we were in the dark.

Gillian Deacon
It didn't take Hermy Lior long to shed some light on the situation. Campy became his life work, and with that focus he overcame problems that had eluded other researchers. In 1979, he had a breakthrough that made identifying and studying Campy workable.

Hermy Lior
One of the problems that the bacteria had at the time was a tendency to stick together like a lump. If the bacteria stick together like that then it's impossible for us in the lab to do any work on them because they're just a mass. And you can't... they're so sticky you can't move them around.

Gillian Deacon
Few bacteria form a sticky mass the way that Campy does, and no one else had found a way to dissolve the clump. Since it couldn't be broken up mechanically, Hermy Lior decided to try a rarely used enzyme.

Hermy Lior
And then one day I tried something that was never done before. I added a drop of a certain material which is called endo-nucleases and I was able to dissolve the clump. It's spectacular because it's done in seconds. So once I was able to dissolve the clump people were able to work with this bacteria.

Gillian Deacon
By 1982 Hermy Lior had developed a simple test, called serotyping, that's used to identify 130 groups of Campy and match them to their suspected source. In 1984 he refined the process further with a test called biotyping that broke down each of the 130 groups into four further categories, or biotypes. Working with bacteria samples from around the globe, Mr. Lior devised procedures that can be done in any lab, and are applicable worldwide. Along with his colleagues, including David Woodward, he developed other tests that made identification and tracing of Campy even more specific. The system of testing that he devised is called Lior Typing.

David Woodward
I actually worked with Hermy Lior for 18 years. I would, without hesitation, say that he's been a dynamic figure and a pioneer in the field of campylobacter investigation.

Gillian Deacon
With Campy on the increase worldwide, monitoring is of the utmost importance. It won't help those who are already afflicted, but tracking the cause of infection to a food source can prevent others from suffering the same fate.

Earth Tones is produced in co-operation with Health Canada.