Escherichia coli (E. coli) continues to result in significant morbidity and mortality in domestic poultry causing a variety of diseases either alone or as an adjunct to other pathogens. The methods of definitive diagnosis and identification of bacteria, which are time consuming, are based on cultural, biochemical and serological characters. To address this limitation, 16S rRNA based method was developed for rapid identification of E. coli using PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis to which a total of 150 isolates were subjected under test. Strain specific 22 SSCP patterns were determined for the isolates collected from the birds died of various disease conditions, mainly egg peritonitis, yolk sac infection and coliseptisemia. The bands of single stranded (ss) DNA in these patterns corresponded to the mobility equivalent to 983 base pair (bp) to 379 bp of double stranded (ds) DNA ladder. This method can be applied to other bacterial species directly obtained from affected tissues as well as grown on media. Rapid detection will help in timely diagnosis, suitable antibiotic therapy and thus reducing morbidity and mortality.
Escherichia coli, PCR, SSCP, polymorphism, 16S rRNA, characterization
