First Detection of Pathogenic Escherichia coli Isolates Associated With Donkey Foals’ Diarrhea in Northern China

ABSTRACT Objective The aim of this study was to identify the biological features, influence factor and Genome-wide properties of pathogenic donkey Escherichia coli (DEC) isolates associated with severe diarrhea in Northern China. Methods The isolation and identification of DEC isolates were carried out by the conventional isolation、automatic biochemical analysis system、serotype identification、16S rRNA test、animal challenge and antibiotics sensitivity examination. The main virulence factors were identified by PCR. The complete genomic re-sequence and frame-sequence were analyzed. Results 216 strains of DEC were isolated from diarrhea samples, conforming to the bacterial morphology and biochemical characteristics of E . coli . The average size of the pure culture was 329.4 nm×223.5 nm. Agglutination test showed that O78 (117/179, 65.4%) was the dominant serotype and ETEC(130/216, 60.1%) was the dominant pathogenic type. Noticeable pathogenic were observed in 9 of 10 (90%) randomly selected DEC isolates caused the death of test mice (100%, 5/5) within 6h∼48h, 1 of 10 (10%) isolates caused the death of test mice (40%, 2/5) within 72h. Our data confirmed that DEC plays an etiology role in dirarrea/death case of donkey foal. Antibiotics sensitivity test showed significant susceptibility to DEC isolates were concentrated in Nor、EFT、ENR、CIP and AMK,while the isolates with severe antibiotic resistance was AM、TE、APR、FFC、RL and CN. Multi-drug resistance was also observed. A total of 15 virulence gene fragments were determined from DEC(n=30) including OMPA (73%), safD (77%), traTa (73%), STa(67%), EAST1 (67%), astA (63%), kspII (60%), irp2 (73%), iucD (57%), eaeA (57%), VAT (47%), iss (33%), cva (27%), ETT2 (73%) and K88 (60%) respectively. More than 10 virulence genes from 9 of 30(30%) DEC strains were detected, while 6 of 30(20%) DEC strains detected 6 virulence factors. phylogenetic evolutionary tree of 16S rRNA gene from different isolates shows some variability. The original data volume obtained from the genome re-sequencing of DEC La18 was 2.55G and Genome framework sequencing was carried out to demonstrate the predicted functions and evolutionary direction and genetic relationships with other animal E . coli . Conclusions These findings provide firstly fundamental data that might be useful in further study of the role of DEC and provide a new understanding of the hazards of traditional colibacillosis due to the appear of new production models.