CULTURAL AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SHEEP <i>Escherichia coli</i> ISOLATED FROM IN AND AROUND BAU CAMPUS

Abstract

Pathogenic Escherichia coli remain as an important etiological agent of sheep diarrhoea in Bangladesh. The present study was designed for the cultural and biochemical characterization of Sheep E. coli from diarrhoeic and apparently healthy sheep in and around BAU campus for the period from January to October, 2007. Out of 90 faecal samples, 36 from diarrhoeic and 54 from apparently healthy sheep collected from different areas in and around BAU campus, 15 (41.67%) and 21 (38.38%) were found to be positive for E. coli. The cultural characterization of all positive sheep E. coli revealed greenish black colony with metallic sheen in Eosine methylene blue agar, bright pink color smooth transparent colony in MacConkey agar, green color colony in Brilliant green agar, slight pinkish smooth colony in Salmonella-Shigella agar and colorless colony with hemolysis in blood agar. In case of biochemical characterization, all of the isolates showed fermentation of dextrose, sucrose, fructose, maltose and mannitol with the production of acid and gas, negative result to Voges-Proskaure test, positive result to Methyl-red test and differential result to Indole test.The overall prevalence of E. coli was recorded as 80.05% through the cultural and biochemical characterization. The antibiotic sensitivity and resistance pattern showed that the isolates of sheep E. coli were highly sensitive to ciprofloxacine, co-trimoxazol, nalidixic acid and chloramphenicol but to the erythromycin the isolates were highly resistant.

DOI = 10.3329/bjvm.v8i1.8350

Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2010). 8(1): 51-55