Prevalence and genetic similarity of enterotoxigenic encoding genes (STa, STb and LT) of Escherichia coli strains isolated from diarrheal piglets

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of the enterotoxigenic encoding genes, such as: STa (estA), STb (estB) and LT (elt) of E. coli strains which were isolated from the diarrheal piglets and to compare their nucleotide sequences. The studied results showed the rate of E.coli strains carrying at least one enterotoxigenic encoding gene was 74.56%. Of which, estB gene accounted for the highest rate (60.53%). The result of analyzing gene sequencesindicated that there was no significant differences in 30 estA gene sequences, as well as in 30 estB gene sequences. However, there were two different gene sequences in 30 elt gene sequences. It is a new finding in this study