Detection of virulence factors of Escherichia coli strains isolated from urogenital system infections in dogs and cats

In this study, virulence factors such as serum resistance, aerobactin iron uptake systems, adhesins (type 1 fimbria, P fimbria, S fimbria, afimbrial adhesins), haemolysine, uropathogenic spesific protein and cytotoxic necrotizing factor in 45 Escherichia coli isolates from dogs and cats with urinary tract and genital system infections, were investigated by both phenotypic methods and molecular methods. In PCR examinations of 45 E. coli, hlyA gene was detected in 73.3% of all isolates. fimH was found in 100%, papC in 71.1%, sfaDE in 82.2%, and afaBC in 0% of the isolates. iucD, traT, usp, cnf1 and cvaC genes were found in 20%, 71.1%, 84.4%, 75.5%, and 11.1% of the isolates, respectively. According to the isolation rate of hlyA and haemolytic activity on blood agar, this virulence factor is commonly seen in these strains and important in these infections especially pathogenesis. İsolates was found to be a high rate positive for usp gene. This result suggested that this strain may have higher infectivity. Cytotoxic necrotizing factor was common and important virulence factor in uropathogenic E. coli and prognosis of infection. However, colisin encoding gene (cvaC) only were detected from 5 of urine samples from dogs. This virulence factor could be important for the urinary tract infections in dogs rather than cats. Haemolysis, type 1 fimbriae, P fimbriae, S fimbriae, cnf, serum resistance, uropathogenic specific protein were detected at high rates by molecular method. In E. coli strains isolated from dogs, virulence factors were found to be higher than cat isolates.