Serotyping of Escherichia coli isolated from piglet diarrhea

Aim: The aim was to investigate the different strains of Escherichia coli isolated from diarrheic piglets by serological typing. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 isolates consists of 66 from diarrheic feces and 84 from intestinal contents were subjected to serological typing. The isolates were referred to National Salmonella and E. coli Center, CRI, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, India for serotyping. Result: Of 150 isolates, 90 isolates were serotyped into 20 different serogroups, 4 isolates were rough and remaining 56 isolates were refractory to serotype. The most frequently encountered serogroups were O76 (25 strains), O60 (18 strains), O120 (11 strains), O87 (6 strains), O107 and O80 (5 strains each), O84 and O64 (3 strains each), and O117 and O158 (2 strains each). The other serogroups identified were O3, 05, O24, O25, O36, O42, O100, O116, 0132, and O140 (1 strain each), 3 rough and 56 strains were untypable. Conclusion: The results in the present study showed that variable strains of E. coli are responsible for diarrhea in piglets. Keywords: diarrhea, Escherichia coli, piglet, serotype.