title: High prevalence of F4+ and F18+ Escherichia coli in Cuban piggeries as determined by serological survey.
abstract: Little information is available on the prevalence of swine enteropathogens in Cuba where diarrheic diseases are responsible for 31% and 37% of the total mortality during the neonatal and postweaning periods. F4+ and F18+ enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and F18+ verotoxigenic E. coli induce diarrhea and edematous disease in pigs, but their distribution has never been thoroughly studied in the Cuban swine population. Therefore, the present study estimated the prevalence of F4- and F18-specific antibodies in sera of 1,044 6-month-old gilts distributed in 34 piggeries spread over the Cuban territory. For the data analysis, which included the optical density of individual samples tested by ELISA, random-effects models and a mixture model in R (package "mixAK"; Komárek, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 53:3932-3947, 2009) were fitted. Low, moderate, and high levels of F4-specific antibodies were found in 67.6%, 26.8%, and 5.6% of the gilts, while 66.4% and 33.6% of gilts showed low and high levels of F18-specific antibodies. Hereby, we show that F4+ and F18+ E. coli are highly prevalent as potential enteropathogens in Cuban piggeries.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, Merelbeke, Belgium. pedroyoelvys.delaferodriguez@ugent.be
authors.forename: Pedro Yoelvys
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: de la Fé Rodríguez
authors.forename: Annelies
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coddens
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Del Fava
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cortiñas Abrahantes
authors.forename: Ziv
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shkedy
authors.forename: Luis O
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Maroto Martin
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cruz Muñoz
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duchateau
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Bruno Maria
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Goddeeris
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D003462:Cuba; D054307:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D015995:Prevalence; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C113053:FedA protein, E coli; C026888:K88 antigen, E coli; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins