Isolation and molecular detection of some virulence genes (eaeA, bfpA)‎ of Escherichia coli from Meat, Milk and cheese

Abstract EN

Aim: The study was undertaken to isolate diarrheagenic E.

coli from meat and various milk products, and detection of some virulence genes using Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) .

Materials and Methods: Altogether 300 meat and various milk products samples consisting of raw meat (100), cheese (100), milk (100), were collected from milk vendors, retail shops located in Thi-Qar, under aseptic precautions.

For the enrichment of the organism from the collected samples, MacConkey broth was used and inoculation was carried out on MacConkey agar and EMB agar.

Later, to confirm the isolates, various biochemical tests such as IMVC tests, Urease test were performed.

Finally the E.

coli isolates were screened for the presence of virulence associated genes by PCR .

Results: The prevalence of E.

coli was observed in 18.33 % of the samples comprising of meat (25%), cheese (13%), milk (17%).

In this study, out of 55 E.

coli isolates, 18 isolates (32.72%) were positive for eaeA gene, of which 6 (33.3%) isolates from meat, while 5 (27.7%) isolates from milk and 7 (38.88%) isolates from cheese,while 8 isolates (14.5%) were positive for bfpA gene: of which 2(25%) were from each of meat, and 2(25%) for milk, and 4(50%) from cheese.