Abstract:

Escherichia coli is the most significant cause of neonatal diarrhoea in ruminants. The current study was designed to monitor the prevalence of multidrug-resistant E. Coli in diarrheic ruminants in Egypt. Rectal swab samples (n=150) were collected between November 2018 and April 2019 from diarrheic calves(n=35), lambs(n=35) and goat kids up to 3months(n=80) from Gimmeza animal production researches station, Agriculture Research Centre (ARC), Egypt. Samples were submitted for isolation and identification of E. coli by conventional culture methods. From the examined samples(n=150), eighty-two (54.67%) were positive for E. coli isolation. Among the 82 E. coli isolates,48 were identified as pathogenic E .coli by cultivation on Congo Red Agar to assess the resistance profile, the 48 pathogenic E. coli isolates were submitted for antibiogram sensitivity tests, which revealed that 10/48 (20.83%) isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR). The 10 MDR. coli isolates were serologically identified as four (n=4) O157:H7isolated from calves (n=2) and goat kids (n=2) and three (n=3) O125isolated from calves (n=2) and lambs (n=1) and three (n=3) O44isolated from goat kids (n=2) and lambs (n=1).