[Evaluation of the etiopathogenic significance of E. coli serotypes 0 1--0 25]

A study was carried out on the incidence of E. coli serogroups 01--025, under different clinical and epidemiologic conditions, with a view to evaluating their etiopathogenic significance and the efficiency of immunofluoresence as a rapid laboratory method of diagnosis. A total number of 1542 samples were collected from humans (1075 feces samples and 467 urine samples from cases of urinary infection), and 387 from animals. The samples were collected from cases of enteritis and from healthy children and adults: 285 samples from infantile enteritis cases; 200 samples from adults with enteritis; 31 samples from healthy children: and 559 samples from healthy adults. These E. coli serogroups were found in humans, in both pathologic and normal conditions. The proportion of isolations of E. coli serogroups 01--025 was greater in the feces samples from healthy subjects than in the samples from enternal or urinary infections (48.80% as against 23.21%), demonstrating the opportunist character of these germs. Positive results were obtained in 30.23% of the products of animal origin (monkeys, dogs, chickens), pointing to the wide spread of these serogroups in nature. Serogroups 04 and 025 were predominant in both the human and animal products. The rapid immunofluorescence diagnosis cannot be applied to these serogroups owing to the multiple and varied antigenic fractions. The laboratory diagnosis can only be established in pure cultures by identification of the groups, by biochemical and serolgic methods, by agglutination reactions on slides and in test tubes.