ABSTRACT Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strains are important human pathogens that are mainly transmitted through the food chain. These pathogens have a low infectious dose and may cause life-threatening illnesses. However, detection of this microorganism in contaminated food or a patient's stool specimens presents a diagnostic challenge because of the low copy number in the sample. Often, a more sensitive nucleic acid amplification method, such as PCR, is required for rapid detection of this microorganism. Ramification amplification (RAM) is a recently introduced isothermal DNA amplification technique that utilizes a circular probe for target detection and achieves exponential amplification through the mechanism of primer extension, strand displacement, and ramification. In this study, we synthesized a circular probe specific for the Shiga toxin 2 gene ( stx ₂ ). Our results showed that as few as 10 copies of stx ₂ could be detected, indicating that the RAM assay was as sensitive as conventional PCR. We further tested 33 isolates of E coli O157:H7, STEC, Shigella dysenteriae , and nonpathogenic E. coli by RAM assay. Results showed that all 27 STEC isolates containing the stx ₂ gene were identified by RAM assay, while S. dysenteriae and nonpathogenic E. coli isolates were undetected. The RAM results were 100% in concordance with those of PCR. Because of its simplicity and isothermal amplification, the RAM assay could be a useful method for detecting STEC in food and human specimens.