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Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains are highly prevalent in Ugandan piggeries but disease outbreaks are masked by antibiotic prophylaxis

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Abstract

Post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an important disease of newly weaned piglets. ETEC strains commonly express F4 and/or F18 fimbriae that attach to carbohydrate receptors present on the intestinal epithelium during colonization. The disease status in the Ugandan piggeries had previously not been studied. In this cross-sectional sero-survey and clinical outbreak monitoring, we found very high sero-prevalence levels of both anti-F4 (70.5 %) and anti-F18 (73.7 %) antibodies, despite limited cases of clinical outbreaks. Strains isolated from these cases were typically F18+ ETEC. High antibiotic resistance and multi-drug resistance were characteristics of the isolates, with highest resistance level of over 95 % to commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline. We conclude that ETEC infections are widely spread on farms in Central Uganda but clinical disease outbreaks were masked by the management practices on these farms, like the use of extensive antibiotic prophylaxis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. Hein Imberechts (CODA, Belgium) and Dr. Bruno Goddeeris (KULeuven, Belgium) for the reference E. coli strains. Dr. Bruno Goddeeris (KULeuven, Belgium) also provided the negative control swine sera. This work was funded by VLIR-UOS (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad) under the Interuniversity Development Cooperation program.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Structural and Molecular Microbiology, Structural Biology Research Center, VIB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Emmanuel Okello, Kristof Moonens & Henri De Greve

  2. Structural Biology Brussels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Emmanuel Okello, Kristof Moonens & Henri De Greve

  3. College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Bio-security, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda

    Emmanuel Okello & Joseph Erume

Authors
  1. Emmanuel Okello
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  2. Kristof Moonens
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  3. Joseph Erume
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  4. Henri De Greve
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Correspondence to Henri De Greve.

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Okello, E., Moonens, K., Erume, J. et al. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains are highly prevalent in Ugandan piggeries but disease outbreaks are masked by antibiotic prophylaxis. Trop Anim Health Prod 47, 117–122 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-014-0694-2

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