Rabbit EPEC: a model for the study of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Colibacillosis has become, in rational rabbit breeding units of western Europe, one of the most economically and pathologically important issues since the beginning of the 1980s. Data on the virulence mechanisms and the phenotypic characters of the E. coli strains that are responsible for lethal diarrhoea epizootics have been gathered throughout the years. These strains are representative of a pathovar called enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) in diarrhoeagenic strains of human origin. EPEC are mainly characterized by their ability to induce a typical lesion called attachment/effacement, whose determinism lies in a pathogenicity island: the locus of enterocyte effacement. The understanding of the pathogenesis mechanisms of this type of bacteria should lead to new tools helping to control the disease in rabbit farming.