Vol. 9, Issue 2 (2020)

Author(s):
S Marodia, S Meena, SK Sharma, V Galav, M Agrawal, RK Tiwari and B Kumar

Abstract:
Escherichia coli, a member of Enterobacteriaceae family, is an established commensal, opportunistic as well as major pathogen of sheep. It is known for causing several intestinal and extra-intestinal infections such as urinary tract infections, meningitis, peritonitis, mastitis, septicemia and pneumonia in sheep. It not only have a crucial role in animal diseases but is also a important human pathogen due to its zoonotic potential. Looking to this, a study was planned to determine the prevalence and zoonotic potential of various Escherichia coli serotypes present in systemic pathological lesions of sheep diseases of total 503 sheep examined, 11.13% (56) cases with grossly evaluated lesions close to Colibacillosis were selected and samples along with swabs from seven major organs including liver, lung, heart, kidney, spleen, intestine and mesenteric lymph nodes were collected and processed. Of total 392 swabs collected from seven organs of selected 56 animals, a total 38.01% (149) prevalence of Escherichia coli isolates was recorded. The occurrence of Escherichia coli isolates in various systemic organs were recorded as intestine (71.42%), mesenteric lymph nodes (37.50%), liver (35.71%), lung (37.50%), heart (26.78%), kidney (35.71%) and spleen (21.42%) in descending order. All isolates were phenotypically characterized and randomly 35 isolates were sent for typing, of which 26 isolates were confirmed typed positive and typed into eight different serotypes that included O1, O20, O22, O49, O88, O115, O119, and O157 serotype. The most frequent serotype was O22 (eight isolates) which was detected in pathologic lesions of lymph node, liver, lung, heart and spleen while the O1 serotype was least frequent. Most significant finding was of zoonotic serotype E.coli O157 that was isolated from infected sheep lung. Occurrence of various E.coli serotypes including zoonotic ones provide substantial basis for pathological and zoonotic potential of Escherichia coli and further suggests genetic characterization of E. coli pathotypes.