Isolation and characterization of enteroaggregative, enterotoxigenic, diffusely adherent Escherichia coli and Salmonella Worthington from human diarrhoeic faecal samples in Kashmir and Secunderabad, India

Putative Virulence Genes and Biofilm Production Among Typical Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Isolates from Diarrhoeic Children in Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh

Fifty-eight typical EAEC isolates from children with diarrhoea were examined for HEp-2 cell adherence assay, presence of dispersin (aap), yersiniabactin (irp2), plasmid encoded toxins (pet), Shigella enterotoxin1 (set1A) and cryptic open reading frame (shf) putative virulence genes by polymerase chain reaction as well as for biofilm production. All the isolates showed aggregative adherence pattern on HEp-2 cells. All but five isolates (91.3 %) carried aap gene. While irp2, pet, set1A and shf genes were detected in 68.9, 5.1, 39.6, and 60.3 % isolates, respectively. Thirty-three (64.7 %) isolates out of 51 tested were found to produce biofilm which was found to be significantly associated only with set1A virulence gene (P = 0.025). Highest amount of biofilm was produced by a strain that possessed all the genes studied. Out of 14 isolates in which the most frequent gene combination (aap, irp2 and shf) was observed, only six produced biofilm. It is concluded that there is significant heterogeneity in putative virulence genes of EAEC isolates from diarrhoeic children and biofilm formation is associated with multiple genes.

Comparison of virulence gene profiles of Escherichia coli isolates from sows with coliform mastitis and healthy sows

Coliform mastitis (CM) is not only a serious economical and animal welfare touching problem in dairy cattle, but also in sows after farrowing. Due to this disease, the essential adequate supply with colostrum for the growth and the health of the piglets is not ensured. Besides other influencing factors, Escherichia (E.) coli is of great importance as a causative agent of this multifactorial disease. In this study, E. coli isolates from milk samples of healthy and CM-affected sows were examined for the presence of virulence genes associated with extraintestinal E. coli strains, enterotoxigenic E. coli and other pathogenic E. coli. The isolated E. coli harbored mainly virulence genes of extraintestinal E. coli strains (especially fimC, ompA, traT, hra, kpsMTII, iroN). The virulence gene spectrum for both samples from CM-affected and healthy sows did not differ significantly. Particular virulence gene profiles of E. coli isolates from diseased sows were not detected. This study provides novel insights into the role of E. coli in association with mastitis in sows since it is the first time E. coli isolates from CM-affected sows' milk were analysed for virulence genes. Because there were no differences in the prevalence of E. coli and their virulence-associated genes between healthy and diseased sows, other causative factors seem to have greater influence on the pathogenesis of porcine CM.