Isolation and characterization of Escherichia coli from rectal swabs of stray cats in Gwangju, Korea

Ninety six E. coli isolates were identified from rectal swabs of stray cats in Gwangju, Korea. Fifty (52.1%) out of the 96 isolates were classified by Escherichia O antisera into the following 14 serotypes: O6, O7, O44, O63, O119, O125, O126, O143, O153, O154, O158, O166, O167 and O168. Among them, serotype O63 was the most prevalent (13.5%). Virulence genes such as eae, sta, slt-i, slt-ii and uid a were detected by PCR. Twenty-four isolates contained the eae gene. However, none of isolates contained the sta, slt-i, slt-ii and uid a genes. The antimicrobial susceptibility test was carried out using a disc diffusion method. All the isolates showed susceptibility to norfloxacin (100%) with the majority showing a high susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (95.5%), enrofloxacin (95.5%) and polymyxin B (95.5%).