Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Strains From Industrial Dairy Farms of Hamedan, Iran

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is considered as one of the most common causes of infectious diarrhea in calves, infecting animals during the first week of age. The secretory diarrhea is attributed to the virulence factors of ETEC strains mainly including heat stable toxin (STa), as well as F5 (K99) and F41 fimbriae.

The present study was undertaken to investigate ETEC infection in neonatal calves of industrial dairy farms of Hamedan, Iran. Additionally, it was undertaken to investigate the genotypic screening of virulence genes in enterotoxigenic E. coli isolated from from dairy farms calves of Hamedan county.

A total of 120 rectal swab samples were collected from healthy and diarrheic calves at one week of age belonging to eight farms. Conventional bacteriological methods, multiplex PCR, and antibiotic susceptibility test of the ETEC isolates were performed.

Nine E. coli isolates were found to be ETEC strains, carrying STa enterotoxin along with F5 and/or F41 fimbriae as the indicators of ETEC cells. Additionally, antibiotic susceptibility test of the ETEC isolates revealed that all of them were sensitive to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, and enrofloxacin, whereas complete resistance was observed against amoxicillin- clavulanic acid (100%) and polymyxin B (100%). The present study, conducted for the first time in Hamedan, indicated a prevalence of 7.5% for Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in the examined animals.

Regarding economic losses of the infection in claves as well as the zoonotic nature of ETEC cells, it is recommended that measures should be taken, such as immunization of pregnant cows prior to the delivery, feeding of adequate colostrum to newborn calves at the right time, and adherence to hygiene practices on the farms to prevent and/or reduce the incidence of diarrhea cases caused by infection with these bacteri