Isolation and characterization of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) from pigs and pork in and around Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an important emerging enterovirulent pathogen having worldwide public health concern both in humans and animals. The present study conducted to study the prevalence of EAEC in pig feces including both diarrheic and non-diarrheic, pork and water samples used in pig rearing and during slaughter. A total of 430 samples (250 pig fecal samples, 120 pork and 60 water samples) were collected from different areas in and around Tirupati. All the samples were subjected to isolation of E. coli through conventional cultural methods and also subjected to E. coli specific E16S rRNA gene for species level identification. Out of 430 samples, E. coli was recovered from 165 (38.37%) samples (132 pig feces, 17 pork and 16 water samples). Further E. coli isolates were subjected to PCR for the detection of EAEC virulence genes viz., pCVD432 (aat AA), aggR and astA genes. On analysis none of the isolates carried aat AA and aggR genes, while astA gene was found in 98 (59.3%) E. coli isolates (69 pig feces, 12 pork and 17 water samples).