PREVALENCE OF ENTEROTOXIGENIC ESCHERICHIA-COLI IN FECES OF CALVES WITH DIARRHEA

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 40  (3) , 241-246
Abstract
The prevalance of enterotoxigenicity among E. coli isolated from calves with diarrhea and from a control group of normal calves was investigated. The test organisms consisted of 200 E. coli recovered from scouring calves < 2 wk old and 100 E. coli from normal calves. The enterotoxigenicity of the cultures was evaluated by injection of ligated segments of piglet intestine, injection of ligated segments of calf intestine and oral inoculation of suckling mice. Live cutures of all the test organisms were used for the ligated intestine studies; sterile broth culture supernatants were used in the suckling mouse tests. Of the isolates from scouring calves, 36% were enterotoxigenic in the piglet intestine and 28% in the calf intestine. Of the isolates from normal calves, none was enterotoxigenic in the piglet intestine and 1 was enterotoxigenic in the calf test system. The ligated piglet intestine was unsuitable for determining the enterotoxigenicity of bovine E. coli and the ligated calf intestine test was satisfactory and correlated completely with the suckling mouse test. The enterotoxigenic E. coli of bovine origin produced an enterotoxin that resembled the heat stable enterotoxin of typical porcine enteropathogenic E. coli.