The purpose of this study was the examination for presence of pilus antigen, O serogroups, colicin production, antibiotic susceptibility and plasmid profiles among E coli isolated from diarrheal piglets and fattening pigs in Taegu province.
Of 145 E coli isolated, 98 strains (67.4%) possesed pilus antigens which belonged to either K88 (47.6%), K99 (11.7%) or 987P (8.3%) types.
Fifty-nine strains (40.7%) were classified into tenO serogroups and their types were O8 (22.0%), O20(16.9%), O141(15.3%), O9(10.2%), O45(10.2%), O139(8.5%), O064(6.8%), O149(5.0%), O157(3.4%), and O115(1.7%).
Thirty-three strains (22.8%) were colicinogenic and 6 strains (4.1%) were hemolytic. One hundred and thirty-nine strains (95.9%) of 145 E coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, rifampicin and nalidixic acid, alone or in combination thereof.
Ninety strains (64.7%) of 139 drug resistant strains carried R factor (R) which were transferable to the recipient by conjugation.
In gel electrophoresis for the isolation of plasmid DNA, the number of plasmid DNA band varied from 2 to 11 in 16 E coli with pilus antigen.
It´s molecular weight ranged from 1.0 to 60.0 megadalton.
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