[Frequency of FY and K99 pili in strains of Escherichia coli isolated from diarrheal calves in France]. / Fréquence des pili FY et K99 parmi des souches de Escherichia coli isolées de veaux diarrhéiques en France.

Epidemiological study of bovine E. coli shows that the FY E. coli pilus which has previously been described and is also known as Att25, can be found in 30 of 415 fecal samples of diarrheic calves, eight of them carrying both FY and K99 pili. The K99 E. coli pilus is present in 86 fecal samples. Strains carrying both FY and K99 pili account for 9% of K99 enterotoxigenic E. coli. K99-, FY+ E. coli do not produce the thermostable enterotoxin (TSa). K99+, FY- or K99+, FY+ E. coli are present mainly in calves under three days old but K99- FY+ E. coli are found whatever the age of the animal.

[Incidence of rotavirus infection and in combined infection of rotavirus and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in French calves (author's transl)]. / Fréquence du rotavirus et de l' association rotavirus et Escherichia coli K99+ chez des veaux de quelques départements français.

Detection of a rotavirus in faeces of 789 calves developing diarrhoea gave positive results among 48% of the calves. The same investigation extended to 96 apparently healthy animals shows that 12.5% of the faeces contained rotavirus. It appears that all the last ones cannot be considered as healthy controls. Association of rotavirus and E. coli K99+ is found in 5% of sick animals less than 10 days old.

[Frequence of K99 antigen and antibioresistance in Escherichia coli from calves in France (author's transl)]. / Fréquence de l'antigène K99 antibiorésistance chez Escherichia coli d'origine bovine en France.

During the winter of 1979-1980, an epizootiological study of diarrhoeic calves revealed the presence of K99+ E. coli among 8.2 p. cent of clinically healthy calves and in 18.9 p. cent of diseases calves. Some calves which seemed healthy on the day of sampling possibly became diarrhoeic on the following days. In diarrhoeic calves, K99+ E. coli were mainly found during the early life, i.e. in 33.7 p. cent of calves less than 4 days old. These results were obtained with 147 healthy calves and 1053 diarrhoeic calves. They confirmed previous results obtained with more limited numbers of animals. Moreover, K99+ E. coli were found in all breeding systems. Antibiotics resistance among the isolated E. coli were very high, especially in K99+ strains. The results proved the interest of E. coli K99 diagnosis in liquid diarrhoea of very young calves.

[Isolation of "Brucella suis" biotype 5 from a bitch, in Madagascar. Validity of the species name "Brucella canis" (author's transl)]. / Isolement de Brucella suis biotype 5 à Madagascar, chez une chienne. Validité du nom d'espèce Brucella canis

A Gram-negative organism isolated from a btich, in Madagascar, was examined by bacteriologic, immunologic and metabolic methods, in parallel with cultures representative of the Brucella species. The organism fits well into the genus Brucella on the basis of its growth, biochemical and antigenic characteristics and was found to have the metabolic pattern on L-asparagine (-), L-arginine (+) and DL-ornithine (+) that identifies and defines the species Brucella suis. It is of rough colonial morphology and electron microscopy showed a cell wall structure similar to that of other rough Brucella. By all the other recommended criteria for btotype identification it was found to be similar to Brucella suis biotype 5 best known as Brucella canis. In contrast to the strains of this biotype, it grows on basic fuchsin at 20 mug/ml and on safranine O at 200 mug/ml. These differences obtained with just one strain would not justify by now the proposal for a new biotype. We favor the designation Brucella suis biotype 5 proposed by Meyer, and the validity of Brucella canis (Carmichael and Bruner) as a separate species is discussed. It is the first strain of Brucella isolated in Madagascar.