Virulence Profile of Enteropathogenic Escherichia Coli (Epec) Isolated From the Cases of Neonatal Calf Diarrhea

A total of 14 (30.43%) diarrheic calves of 1-4 weeks out of 46 calves kept under poor hygienic conditions in a dairy farm were suffering clinically from acute diarrhea. Diarrheic calves showed fever, diarrhea, dehydration, pneumonia recumbence and death of two calves. Thirteen (92.85 %) isolates of E. coli out of the 14 collected rectal swaps of diarrheic calves were identified on bacteriological and molecular basis. The results of the amplification of phoAgene using PCR revealed that all E. coli isolates showed positive result for the presence of phoAgene, thus confirming their identity as E. coli. All tested E. coli isolates were positive for intimin (eae) A, attaching and effacing gene (gene species specific) for E. coli (100%). No isolate had shiga toxin1 (stx1), shiga toxin 2 (stx2), hemolysin (hylA), and E. coli enterotoxin genes heat stable enterotoxin (st) and heat labile enterotoxin (lt). The obtained results indicate the possible participation of pathogenic E. coli in calf diarrhea. EPEC represented 100% of the tested E. coli strains obtained from diarrheic calves. The obtained results indicated that EPEC infection is a major health problem among calves and suggests the significance of poor hygiene measures in the investigated farm the possible participation of calves in the zoonotic transmission of pathogenic E. coli.