A comparison between the traditional and the molecular methods in the diagnosis of diarrheagenic escherichia coli

Abstract EN

A total of 126 fecal samples were collected from diarrheic animals and human (43 calves, 24 calf-camel 14 sheep and 45 children).

The isolates were identified biochemically, then serotyping of Escherichia coli isolates were done to identify somatic (O) serotype and flagellar (H) serotype.

The results revealed a wide variety of Escherichia coli serogroups implicated as a cause for diarrhea in human and animals.

Serotypes recovered from calfcamels were different than the serotypes recovered from children which indicate absence of the zoonotic role of calf-camels to human being.

The isolates were then subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of species-specific gene (uidA), the results were (35 / 37 ; 27.8 %), (18 / 20 ; 14.3 %), (8 / 11 ; 6.3 %) and (7 / 8 ; 5.6 %) among children, calves, calfcamels and sheep, respectively.

These results clear the high sensitivity of the molecular methods for diagnosis comparing to the conventional ones.