Virulence factors pattern of Escherichia coli strain isolated from endometritis in mares in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province

Endometriosis is one of the major causes of decreased fertility in mares which is caused by various infectious agents, the most common of which is Escherichia coli. The aim of this study was to determine the virulence factors pattern in Escherichia coli isolated from endometriosis cases in mares.

In this study, 136 mares with a history of infertility and pregnancy problems were studied in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. After sampling by uterine siphoning and microbial culture of the samples, molecular confirmation of the isolated Escherichia coli strains and the presence of the most common virulence factors in these strains were used by PCR method.

From 136 studied samples, 22 (16.17%) were infected with Escherichia coli. It was recognized that fimH (90.9%), afa/draBC and cnf1 (72.7%) had the highest while papGIII (27.2%), and traT (18.8%) had the lowest distributions of virulence genes in these strains.

The results of this study showed that one of the dominant bacteria causing endometriosis in Escherichia coli material is the presence of a variety of virulence factors in Escherichia coli strains indicating direct involvement of these agents in bacterial pathogenicity.