Characterization of bacterial pathogens associated with endometritis in cattle

Research Abstract

Bacteriological examination of 120 uterine samples collected from cows with endometritis was done for isolation and identification of bacterial pathogens causing bovine endometritis. A total of 130 isolates of different bacteria were recovered, the recovered isolates included Escherichia coli (48.3%), Enterococcus faecalis (15.8%), Pasteurella multocida (12.5%), Enterococcus faecium (11.7%), β-haemolytic Streptococci (5.8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5%), Staphylococcus aureus (5%) and Mannhaemia haemolytica (4.2%). The invitro susceptibility test using disc diffusion method against 7 antimicrobial agents revealed that the highest susceptibility was against amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (90.8%) followed by ciprofloxacin (83.9%), gentamicin (76.9%), cephalexin (68.5%) and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (57.7%). While, most of isolates were resistant to cefotaxime (81.5%) and doxycycline (51.5%). Multidrug resistance (MDR) was detected in 37.7% (n=49) of isolates. Using PCR for detection of 5 resistance genes including blaTEM, blaCTX-M, sul1, tetA and qnrS, among selected MDR isolates revealed existence of all tested genes in 100% of isolates. Biofilm formation capacity, as a very important virulence marker in E. coli, was assessed phenotypically on YESCA Congo red agar plates and it was detected in 46.6% of recovered E. coli isolates. Using PCR to assess biofilm associated genes; fimH, papC and hlyA in ten randomly selected MDR and phenotypically positive for biofilm formation, showed a prevalence of 100% for fimH gene, 40% for papC gene and 10% for hlyA.

Research Keywords

Characterization of bacterial pathogens associated with endometritis in cattle