Intestine and environment of the chicken as reservoirs for extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli strains with zoonotic potential.

ABSTRACT: Although research has increasingly focused on the pathogenesis of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) infections and the "APEC pathotype" itself, little is known about the reservoirs of these bacteria. We therefore compared outbreak strains isolated from diseased chickens (n = 121) with nonoutbreak strains, including fecal E. coli strains from clinically healthy chickens (n = 211) and strains from their environment (n = 35) by determining their virulence gene profiles, phylogenetic backgrounds, responses to chicken serum, and in vivo pathogenicities in a chicken infection model. In general, by examining 46 different virulence-associated genes we were able to distinguish the three groups of avian strains, but some specific fecal and environmental isolates had a virulence gene profile t

SUBMITTER: Ewers C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2612213 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature