Detection, characterization and antibiogram of Escherichia Coli from diarrhoeic dogs of West Bengal

Escherichia coli are ubiquitous in nature and are intestinal bacterial flora of animals and humans. Pathogenic E. coli are one of the most important groups of bacteria causing diarrhoea and extra intestinal infections in humans and animals. Diarrhoea in canines is mainly caused by pathogenic E. coli which may cause infections in human beings also. During May to September 2012, this study was undertaken to detect the prevalence of pathogenic E. coli strains from diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic dogs (112 in total) in Southern part of West Bengal, which revealed a total of 71 (63.4%) different canine samples were positive for E. coli. The E. coli serotypes detected were as O6, O8, O26, O101, O153 and O157 out of which O8 was the most frequent one. The serotypes viz. O6, O8, O26 and O157 showed high level of enteropathogenicity in rabbit ileal loop assay. In antibiogram, drugs like ceftazidime (84.5%), azithromycin (81.7%), ciprofloxacin (74.6%) and ceftriaxone (70.4%) were highly sensitive against these isolates but drugs like amikacin (97.2%), cephalexin (93%), cephaloridine (88.7%), enrofloxacin (84.5%), neomycin (76.1%) and tetracycline (59.2%) were mostly resistant.