Isolation, Identification and Serotyping of Escherichia coli in patients with Gastroentritis

Abstract

Gastroenteritis is one of the serious health problems worldwide. Escherichia coli is the leading organism among the causative agents of gastroenteritis. The objective of this study was to isolate, identify and serotype Escherichia coli from patients with gastroenteritis. A total of 100 stool specimens were collected from patients attended Military Hospital and Hospital For Pediatric, Mohammed Alamen Hamed Omdorman. The specimens were cultivated on bacteriological culture media for primary isolation of the pathogen. E. coli was identified by Gram's stain and biochemical tests. Serotyping for compliment cultural findings was done by slide agglutination of heat treated organisms method to detect enteropathogenic E. coli. The result revealed that 87 (87% ) E. coli were isolated from the hundred specimens. 33 (38% ) of the isolates were EPEC. Out of them, 23 (70% ) of these were poly 2-serogroup and 10 (30% ) were poly 3-serogroup. The study concluded that EPEC serotype was the main causative agent of gastroentritis in children than in adult. Further studies are needed to confirm the present result as well as using monovalent antisera for specific serotyping.