This paper was conducted to determine the E. coli prevalence, the serotypes involved and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of isolated E. coli from ostrich farm environment as well as from both ostrich eggs and carcasses (meat and liver). Three hundreds and fifteen samples were collected during summer season, 2012 from ostrich farm and slaughter house located at El-Kassaseen, Ismailia province. The obtained results indicated that, the overall prevalence of E. coli in all examined samples was 14.9 % (47/315). The prevalence of E. coli in feed, water, ostrich dropping, egg shells, workers hands and rodents dropping were 12, 13.3, 17.3, 16.7, 13.3, and 33.3 %, respectively, while the prevalence of E. coli in ostrich liver and meat were 13.3 and 6.7%, respectively. The most predominant serotype of E. coli was O126:K71 (10 strains), followed by O111:K58 (9 strains), O86:K61 (7 strains), O55:K59 (7 strains), O114: K90, O78:K70, and O26:K60 (4 strains of each), O119:K69 (3 strains), O128:K67, and O124:K72 (one strain of each), and finally 2 untypable strains. Antibiogram patterns showed that both E. coli O111:K58 and O126 were high to moderate sensitive to amoxicillin, kanmycin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and neomycin. Furthermore, both E. coli strains were resistant to erythromycin, nalidixic acid and tetracycline.The study concluded that both breeder and grower flocks were exposed to high level of environmental contamination with E. coli which resulted in the contamination of both hatching eggs and ostrich products. The suggested preventive measures for minimizing E. coli prevalence in ostrich products and environment as well as to reduce the public health hazards of colibacillosis were discussed. |
