Protection of rabbits against enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) using an intimin null mutant.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diarrhea and mortality resulting from infections with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) are of major economic importance in the rabbit meat industry. There is a growing need for an effective vaccine to cope with these problems and to reduce the use of antibiotics. EPEC are characterized by an attaching and effacing virulence mechanism. This is partly mediated by the intimate binding between an adhesin, called intimin, and a translocated receptor (Tir) of prokaryote origin. We constructed an intimin deletion mutant of the rabbit EPEC (REPEC) wild-type strain 97/241.6 (bio-/serogroup 3-/O15) and examined its protective capacity.

Results

After verifying its complete loss of virulence, we used the attenuated strain in vaccination-challenge experiments in which

SUBMITTER: Stakenborg T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1544329 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature