CHARACTERIZATION OF PATHOGENIC E. COLI ISOLATED IN SHEEP AT SLAUGHTERHOUSE

Fleeces, carcass surface, mucosal gut and faeces samples, collected from 95 slaughtered sheep and lambs from three abattoirs, were examined. The aim of this study was: 1) to evaluate the prevalence of the Verocytotoxic E. coli (VTEC); 2) to obtain virulence profile (stx1, stx2, hlyA and eae) by multiplex PCR; 3) to define the ovine-specific serogroup pathogenic power for the humans. An overall prevalence of 11.1% (adults 14%, lambs 7.8%) was found by direct PCR test. The VTEC occurrence was 18.9% in fleeces, 14.7% on carcasses and 10.5% in mucosal gut. According to the multiplex PCR the following results were obtained: 21% of the isolates belonged to VTEC pathogroup, within 92% were EHEC; 37.9% were identified as EPEC pathogroup. Forty one % of the strains were negative for all the genes. None of the isolates belonged to O157 and 0146 serogroups, while the 57% resulted O91.