Prevalence of VTEC O157 in dairy and veal herds and risk factors for veal herds

Multivariable logistic regression showed that the type of veal (pink vs. white; OR = 21.6; 95% CI: 10.4-45.0), ventilation (mechanical vs. natural; OR = 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2-0.8), time between arrival in the herd and sampling (3-5 months vs. 0-2 months: OR = 2.33; 95% CI: 1.1-5.1, ≥6 months vs. 0-2 months: OR = 4.11; CI: 1.9-8.9), other feed than the 7 most common (yes vs. no; OR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.2-3.7) and at least one dog present in the stable (yes vs. no; OR = 2.6; 95% CI: 1.5-4.6) were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with the presence of VTEC O157. The large difference in the VTEC O157 prevalences for pink veal and white veal production might have been caused by a very different management of these type of herds. However, this could not be studied with the data collected.