Rapid and specific differentiation of enterotoxin-producing Escherichia coli strains from other gram-negative enteric...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) may produce heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (STI or STII) enterotoxins. Differentiation between ETEC and other pathogenic and non-pathogenic E. coli as well as other Gram-negative bacteria responsible for induction of diarrhoea, requires isolation, biochemical identification and determination of toxins (or their genes--elt, estI, estII). A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system for the rapid and specific detection of enterotoxin-gene-positive E. coli was developed. The primers described by other authors, specific for the universal stress protein A (UspA) of E. coli and enterotoxin genes were used and allowed a simultaneous amplification of the E. coli-specific uspA and the respective toxin genes. The specificity of this multiplex PCR system was confirmed by testing ETEC, non-ETEC and other non-E. coli bacteria. The specific 884 bp uspA gene and 280 bp (eltI), 166 bp (estI) or 278 bp (estII) amplification products were generated with the respective ETEC strains whereas no amplification was detected with non-E. coli bacteria. The multiplex PCR developed allowed the rapid and specific identification of enterotoxin-producing E. coli colonies directly grown from faecal samples of pigs with diarrhoea. The test may be used as a method for the determination of ETEC among other pathogenic groups of E. coli and other Gram-negative enteric isolates.