RESUMO
Aim: The present study was conducted to detect the occurrence, serogroups, virulence genes and phylogenetic relationship of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli [STEC] in human, clave and goat in Kerman [southeast of Iran]
Background: STEC have emerged as the important foodborne zoonotic pathogens causing human gastrointestinal disease and confirming the risk to public health
Methods: A total of 671 fecal samples were collected from diarrheic patients [n=395] and healthy calves [n=156] and goats [n=120] and screened for the presence of stx gene. Furthermore, the prevalence of stx1 and stx2 variants, serotypes [O157, O145, O103, O26, O111, O91, O128, and O45], phylogenetic groups and the presence of ehxA, eae, hylA, iha and saa virulence genes were studied
Results: Prevalence of STEC in human diarrheic isolates was 1.3% [5 isolates], in claves was 26.3% [41 isolates] and in goats was 27.5% [33 isolates]. stx1 gene was the most prevalent variant and detected in 75 isolates. Furthermore, stx1c was the most predominant stx subtype, found in 56 isolates. The ehxA identified in 36 [45.6%] isolates, followed by iha 5 [6.3%], eaeA 4 [5.1%], hlyA 2 [2.5%] and saa 2 [2.5%]. Most of the isolates belonged to phylogroup B1. Only two O26 and one O91 isolates were detected in our study
Conclusion: Our results show that STEC strains were widespread among healthy domestic animals in the southeast of Iran