Escherichia coli is one of the major causative infectious agents of diarrhea in preweaning and postweaning pigs and leads to a large economic loss worldwide. However, there is limited information on the distribution and virulence genes in E. coli isolated from diarrheic piglets, which also applies to the current status of pig farms in Korea. To investigate the prevalence of virulence-associated genes in E. coli related to diarrhea in piglets, the rectal swab samples of diarrheic piglets were collected from Seoul National University’s veterinary pathological department between 2022 and 2023. E. coli strains were identified using the VITEK II system. Two sets of multiplex PCRs and one single PCRs used to detect 10 E. coli virulence genes. As a result, a total of 145 E. coli isolates were identified encoding one or more of the virulence genes. Among them, the prevalence of individual virulence gene was as follows, piglets virulence genes were STa 58.6%(85/145), STb 22.1%(32/145), LT 15.2%(22/145), EAST1 24.8%(36/145), Stx2e 6.9%(10/145), F4 31.7%(46/145), F5 1.4%(2/145), F6 11.7%(17/145), F18 4.1%(6/145), and F41 0.7%(1/145) respectively. These results suggest that E. coli disease in piglets may not be associated with a single toxin or a major gene combination, but with more varied and complex toxins and their combinations in Korea.

서 론
재료 및 방법
    대장균 분리
    부착인자 및 Toxin genes검출
결 과
고 찰
REFERENCES

• Heejin Ham(Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Hoseo University, 20 Hoseo-ro 79 beon-gil, Baebang-eup, Asan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, 31499, Korea) Corresponding author