Comparative Clinical Pathology

, Volume 18, Issue 1, pp 53–57 | Cite as

Detection of shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli from fecal samples of calves and cattle by molecular and serological methods

  • Saeed Sepehriseresht
  • Taghi Zahraei Salehi
  • Morteza Sattari
  • Hasan Tadjbakhsh
  • Mohammad Mehdi Aslani
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli is an important cause of dysentery in domestic animals. In this study, we compared polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serologic (through verotoxigenic escherichia coli-rapid plate latex agglutination (VTEC-RPLA) kit) methods to detect shigatoxigenic E. coli isolated from 400 fecal samples collected from cattle and calves. Primers detecting shigatoxin 1 and 2 genes (stx1 and stx2 respectively) were used. From 400 fecal samples, 328 (82%) and 72 (18%) were collected from diarrheic and non-diarrheic calves respectively. Thirty-four isolates (8.5%) were positive in their PCR results performed on their total DNA of which 24 (70.5%) carried stx1 gene, eight (23.5%) carried stx2 gene and two (6%) carried both stx1 and stx2 genes. From 34 shigatoxigenic isolates, 27 (79.5%) were collected from diarrheic and seven (20.5%) were collected from non-diarrheic calves. All of 400 isolates were evaluated through verotoxigenic escherichia coli-rapid plate latex agglutination for shigatoxin production. There was 100% concordance between PCR and VTEC-RPLA results.

Keywords

Escherichia coli PCR VTEC-RPLA Shigatoxin Cattle 
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Notes

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Research Council of University of Tehran and Research Council of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of University of Tehran for financial support and project No.7504002/6/4 and also, we are thankful to Professor Nadalian, M.G., Dr. Lotfollahzadeh, S., and Dr. Askari M. for their valuable collaboration.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag London Limited 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Saeed Sepehriseresht
    • 1
  • Taghi Zahraei Salehi
    • 1
    • 4
  • Morteza Sattari
    • 2
  • Hasan Tadjbakhsh
    • 1
  • Mohammad Mehdi Aslani
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary MedicineUniversity of TehranTehranIran
  2. 2.Bacteriology Department, School of Medical SciencesTarbiat Modares UniversityTehranIran
  3. 3.Bacteriology DepartmentPasteur Institute of IranTehranIran
  4. 4.Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary MedicineUniversity of TehranTehranIran

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