Vet World   Vol.10   August-2017  Article-18

Presence and characterization of Escherichia coli virulence genes isolated from diseased pigs in the central region of Argentina

Background and Aim: The aim of this work was to evaluate the presence of strains expressing virulence markers genes and the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of E. coli from clinical cases of post weaning diarrhea and ED in farms in the central area of Argentina.

Materials and Methods: Intensive pig farms from the central region of Argentina were sampled. Intestinal mucosa swabs from pigs with diarrhea were taken, seeded on MacConkey agar plates, biochemically typified and tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antibiograms were made by disk-diffusion method.

Results: A total of 54 strains from clinical cases studied showed PCR findings: 88.88% (48/54) expressed at least one gene coding for a virulence factor. Colonization factors found were: 39.58% of strains had F18, 33.33% were F4 and 31.25% adhesin involved in diffuse adherence-I; 29.17%, 25%, and 2.1% expressed LT, STb, and STa, respectively. 25% were STx and 16.67% were eae positive. Only 2.1% were STx2. The most active antibiotics against most strains were gentamicin and ceftiofur, but resistance profiles against many antibiotics were found.

Conclusion: High circulation of pathogens strains of E. coli among pigs with diarrhea with an extended antibiotic resistance profile. Keywords: antibiotic resistance profile, Escherichia coli, pig, virulence genes.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance profile, Escherichia coli, pig, virulence genes.

How to cite this article: Bessone FA, Bessone G, Marini S, Conde MB, Alustiza FE, Zielinski G (2017) Presence and characterization of Escherichia coli virulence genes isolated from diseased pigs in the central region of Argentina, Veterinary World, 10(8): 939-945.

Received: 03-04-2017  Accepted: 13-07-2017     Published online: 18-08-2017

Corresponding author: Fernando A. Bessone   E-mail: bessone.fernando@inta.gob.ar

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.939-945

Copyright: Bessone, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.