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OJVRTM
Online Journal of Veterinary Research ©
Volume
15
(5): 446-454, 2011.
Molecular
epidemiology
of virotypes of Escherichia
coli in feces
of healthy
household cats
Ghanbarpour Reza1
(DVM, PhD),
Akhtardanesh
Baharak2 (DVM, PhD), Pakseresht
Akram2
(DVM)
1Microbiology,
2Small
Animal
Internal Medicine Departments of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar
University, 76169-14111,
Kerman, Iran
ABSTRACT
Reza G, Baharak A, Akram P., Molecular
epidemiology of virotypes of Escherichia
coli in feces of healthy household cats,
Online J Vet Res., 15
(5): 446-454,
2011. Escherichia
coli
strains are
classified on the basis of their virulence genotypes into virotypes. Sixty nine E. coli isolates from feces of healthy
household cats
were
examined to determine a selection of virulence genes. Phylogenetic
groups and subgroups of the isolates were determined by PCR. In 30 (43.47%) E.
coli
isolates virulence genes were present alone or in combination with
each other. The
detected virulence genes were
classified in sixteen different patterns, which were considered as
different virotypes. The most
common virulence gene was sfa/focD-E,
which was positive in 18 (26.08%) isolates. Among the E. coli
isolates, 24.63% had hly, 14.49% iucD, 14.49% papE-F, 13.04% cnf1, 1.44% stx2 and 1.44% eae
genes. Ten combination patterns of the virulence genes were detected in
examined isolates, of which a combination of hly, sfa,
pap, cnf1 genes
was the most prevalent pattern. None of
the
isolates contained the afaIB-C,
stx1,
STI, LTI, cnf2 and ipaH
genes. Virotypes were distributed in four
main phylogroups.
Sixty nine
isolates belonged to A (60.87%), B1 (17.39%), B2 (7.24%) and D
(14.50%) phylogroups. Twelve isolates fell
in to B1 group, whereas
57 isolates (82.61%) fell into five phylogenetic
subgroups: 23.19% into A0, 37.68% into A1, 7.24%
into B22,
10.14% into D1 and 4.35% into D2. None of the
isolates
belonged to B23 subgroup. In
conclusion
virulence genes were found in a relatively high percentage of E. coli isolates from feces of
healthy household cats. Virotypes differed phylogenetically and could
be excreted
into the external environment and transmitted to susceptible hosts.
Key words: Escherichia
coli; virotype, genotype, cat