Diarrhea remains one of the most common diseases of suckling and postweaning piglets worldwide and is responsible for approximately 10.8% of preweaning mortality in certain geographic regions (1). During the last few years, we have observed that in an increasing number of cases suspected of enteric colibacillosis in piglets, it has not proven possible to determine the etiological agent by standard slide agglutination techniques, using anti-fimbrial sera. Our objectives were: (i) To determine the prevalence of E. coli pathotypes among diarrheic and non-diarrheic piglets, using DNA hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in order to identify potential emerging diarrhea-causing pathotypes, (ii) to examine the ability of relevant pathotypes to induce diarrhea in newborn pigs, and (iii) to assess an antibiotic sensitivity profile of isolates.
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