Prevalence and characterization of Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli isolated from diarrhoeic and healthy sheep and goats.

Faecal samples from 146 diarrhoeic lambs and goat kids, and from 511 healthy sheep and goats were screened for the presence of Vero cytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC). In healthy sheep and goats, VTEC were isolated in 24.4 and 16.2% of the animals, respectively. Moreover, VTEC were detected in 3.1 and 5.9% of the diarrhoeic lambs and goat kids, respectively. These data suggest that VTEC seems not to be associated with diarrhoea in lambs and goat kids. Only four VTEC strains were eae-positive. The absence of the eae gene in most of these VTEC strains could indicate that these strains are less virulent for humans that the classical eae-positive enterohaemorrhagic E. coli types. However, almost half (42.9%) and 12.2% of VTEC strains isolated from healthy sheep and goats, respectively, belonged to serotypes associated with severe diseases in humans.