Prevalence of enterotoxigenic and shiga toxin Escherichia coli isolated from diarrhea swine in Ratchaburee and Kanchanaburee, Thailand

Abstract

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and shiga toxin E. coli (STEC) are important causes of diarrhea disease in swine including human. To investigate the potential of ETEC and STEC may associated to human disease, 327 rectal swabs were collected from diarrhea swines from Ratchaburee and Kanchanaburee province, Thailand. By conventional bacteriology, 2,060 E. coli isolates were detected and submitted to determine the virulence genes of ETEC and STEC (LT, ST, stx1 and stx2 family) by PCR which specific primer pairs. The results showed that 192 isolates from 27 samples were positive for LT, 126 isolates from 26 samples were positive for LT and 29 isolates from 4 samples were positive for stx2 family gene. None isolate was positive for stx1 family gene. These data indicate that ETEC and STEC can also found in diarrhea swine which can cause the disease in human who consume improperly swine product. However, these study will further investigate the antibiotic susceptible profile and the other virulence gene to emphasized the diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC) surveillance.