Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains are highly prevalent in Ugandan piggeries but disease outbreaks are masked by antibiotic prophylaxis

Post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) caused by enterotoxigenic
Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an important disease of
newly weaned piglets. ETEC strains commonly express F4
and/or F18 fimbriae that attach to carbohydrate receptors
present on the intestinal epithelium during colonization. The
disease status in the Ugandan piggeries had previously not
been studied. In this cross-sectional sero-survey and clinical
outbreak monitoring, we found very high sero-prevalence
levels of both anti-F4 (70.5 %) and anti-F18 (73.7 %) antibodies,
despite limited cases of clinical outbreaks. Strains
isolated from these cases were typically F18+ ETEC. High
antibiotic resistance and multi-drug resistance were characteristics
of the isolates, with highest resistance level of over 95%
to commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline.
We conclude that ETEC infections are widely spread on
farms in Central Uganda but clinical disease outbreaks were
masked by the management practices on these farms, like the
use of extensive antibiotic prophylaxis.

Publication year:2015

Keywords:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Antibiotic prophylaxis, Sero-prevalence, Fimbriae, Toxin genes

CSS-citation score:1

Accessibility:Open