CHARACTERIZATION OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI SEROGROUPS CAUSING MENINGITIS, SEPSIS AND ENTERITIS .1. SEROLOGICAL PROPERTIES AND ANIMAL PATHOGENICITY OF O-18, O78 AND O83 ISOLATES

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 24  (2) , 115-126
Abstract
E. coli O78:K80 strains isolated from an outbreak among premature and newborn infants with meningitis, sepsis and enteritis, from sporadic cases of enteritis and from healthy carriers were compared with one another and with different E. coli serogroups. The O78:K80 cultures uniformly failed to give the rabbit intestinal loop test and the guinea pig eye reaction and none of them contained L1 antigen. After i.p. injection into mice, the organisms multiplied in the peritoneal cavity and caused bacteremia lasting at least 2 wk. E. coli strains originating from septicemia (O78:K80, O18a,c:K?, O83:K?) showed significantly lower LD50 values for mice (9 .times. 103-7 .times. 105) than did E. coli serogroups associated with infantile enteritis only (3 .times. 108-7 .times. 108). It is assumed that the isolates differ in pathogenicity not only from E. coli strains associated with cholera-like disease and with dysenteriform infection, but also from L1 antigen-containing cultures described in neonatal meningitis, and constitute a separate group characterized by an ability to cause meningitis, sepsis and enteritis within the same outbreak.

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