Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) evokes a paramount concern from the public health point of view. Many reports dealt with the characterization of STEC from large ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the presence of STEC in sheep and goats, distribution of stx1, stx2, eaeA, and hlyA genes encoding Shiga toxins, intimin, enterohemolysins, and the antimicrobial resistance index (MAR). A total of 170 samples collected from (diarrheic, apparently healthy, and milk samples) from sheep, goats, and bedding (136, 27 and 7) respectively. E.coli was detected at a rate of 71 (41.7%) distributed as 62 (44%) and 9 (31%) from sheep and goat, respectively. The prevalent serotypes were O111: H2, O26: H11, O103:H2, O55: H7, O86, O121: H7, O125: H21, and O124. The frequency of stx1 gene was 13/15 (86.7%), stx2 was 14/15 (93.3%), the eaeA gene was 8/15 (53.3%), and hlyA gene was 10/15 (66.7%). The most effective antimicrobials were Chloramphenicol, Doxycycline and Cephradine. It was clear that 6/15 (40%) of the obtained serotypes exhibited MAR index ≤0.5 while 9/15 (60%) gave MAR index ˃0.5 with a significant difference between them (P˂0.05). Hence, genotyping and antimicrobial resistance are pivotal epidemiological tools promoting felicitous control strategies against STEC serotypes.

To Cite This Article: Elsayed MSAE, Awad A, Trabees R and Marzouk A, 2018. Virulence repertoire and antimicrobial resistance profile of shiga toxin-producing E.coli isolated from sheep and goat farms from Al-Buhayra Egypt. Pak Vet J, 38(4): 429-433. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.082