Biotyping of clinical isolates of Escherichia coli of animal origin, using the Analytab API 20E system

Using the Analytab (API 20E) Enterobacteriaceae system of biochemical identification, a total of 506 Escherichia coli isolates from different animal species were coded numerically or biotyped. Fifty-four different biotypes were identified, 11 accounting for 83.1% of the isolates examined. Three of these profiles accounted for 65.3% of the isolates and were found in almost all animal species. Some of the biotypes were found in only one animal species: six in cattle, five in horses, 15 in pigs, two in sheep, two in birds, one in dogs and one in a porpoise. Biotypes, as determined here, could not be related to a particular pathology and more work is needed to assess the extent and significance of this relative biotype specificity among animal species. The use of other, more sophisticated, typing systems, i.e. plasmid "fingerprinting", or restriction endonuclease analysis of chromosomal DNA, would have to be investigated.