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Lethal factor to mice produced by Escherichia coli isolated from chickens with swollen head syndrome
Marcia Regina Salvadori1, Ana Marisa Chudzinski-Tavassi, Maria Regina Baccaro
1Departamento de Microbiologia e Imunologia, Instituto to de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP Brazil, cep 13081-970.
Microbiology and Immunology
|January 9, 2003
Abstract:
A lethal toxin similar to Bacillus cererus lethal toxin was detected in the culture supernatants of Escherichia coli isolated from chickens with swollen head syndrome. The lethal activity was heat-labile, protease-sensitive and killed mice within 10 min. The light microscopy of the histopathological studies revealed that the principal organ affected by this toxin was the lung but the liver and kidneys also showed lesions. The relevance of this lethal activity from E. coli remains to be determined.