PREVALENCE OF THE FIMBRIAL ANTIGENS F-18 AND K88 AND OF ENTEROTOXINS AND VEROTOXINS AMONG ESCHERICHIA-COLI ISOLATED FROM WEANED PIGS

Until recently, the fimbrial F18 antigen has been provisionally designated F107, 2134P, or 8813. Using the slide agglutination test, this antigen was shown to be present on 139 of 160 Escherichia coli strains of type O139:K82 and on all of the 146 K88-negative strains of the other pathogenic porcine serotypes. These strains were isolated from weaned pigs which in most cases had died from postweaning colibacillosis. All strains were haemolytic. With only three exceptions, they produced verotoxin and/or enterotoxin. The F18ab variant strongly predominated on the O139:K82 strains and was found on about half of the O138:K81 strains and a few O157 strains, whereas the other strains carried the F18ac variant. In serotypes which can carry either F18 or K88 fimbriae, closer clonal relationships between the strains associated with F18 and those associated with K88 were missing.