Prevalence of Salmonella and E.  coli in neonatal diarrheic calves

Neonatal calf diarrhea remains one of the most important problems faced by livestock, causing great economic losses. This study investigated the prevalence of Salmonella and Escherichia coli, especially enterotoxigenic E.  coli (ETEC), in diarrheic calves. Fecal samples were collected from 127 diarrheic calves up to 3 months of age at 12 farms from different governorates in Egypt. 119 bacterial isolates (93.7%) were recovered and the prevalences of Salmonella and E.  coli in diarrheic calves were 18.1% and 75.6%, respectively. Serotyping of Salmonella isolates revealed that S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium were the most prevalent serotypes, representing 60.9% and 30.4%, respectively, while S. Dublin was 8.7%. Serogrouping of E.  coli isolates showed that 10 O-serogroups were obtained where O₂₆ and O₁₀₃ were the most prevalent (17.7% of each). Salmonella serotypes showed positive results with PCR test using oligonucleotide primer amplifying 521 bp fragment of invA gene of Salmonella while 70% of E.  coli serogroups possessed ETEC virulent gene (K99). The in-vitro antibiotic sensitivity test indicated that Salmonella serotypes showed high sensitivity against enrofloxacin, spectinomycin and neomycin while E.  coli isolates showed high sensitivities against marbofloxacin, spectinomycin and neomycin only.