This study investigated the effect of the growth temperature (20 and 37 °C) of Escherichia coli strains isolated from pigs on their adhesion to stainless steel and polycarbonate. This study also evaluated the ability of the DLVO and XDLVO mathematical models to predict this adhesion. The rise of growth temperature from 20 to 37 °C significantly influenced the adhesion of studied E. coli strains. The data also underlined that the mathematical prediction did not fully match with the experimental bacterial adhesion to surfaces. Furthermore, results showed that the colistin-resistant and sensitive E. coli strains adhesion depends on the type of abiotic surface. Based on these results, the mathematical models are limited in the prediction of the bacterial adhesion to abiotic surfaces. The surface roughness is a major parameter of the bacterial adhesion and should be included in the future mathematical models predicting the bacterial adhesion.
Keywords: Adhesion prediction; Colistin-resistant Escherichia coli; DLVO; Food-contact-surfaces; XDLVO.