Genetic properties of plasmids isolated from pathogenic strain of Citrobacter freundii

It was found that Citrobacter freundii SLJ10 strain was an etiological factor of swine diarrhoea in North Poland. This strain harboured a plasmid aggregate consisting of two plasmids-pEM4 responsible for virulence and pEM6 for selective advantage of the strain, determining resistance to tetracycline and production of bacteriocin. These two plasmids cooperated in conjugal transfer and formed an infective block of genetic information, which could be transferred to other strains of Enterobacteriaceae and cause their virulence.