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Page No. : 15-19

ABSTRACT

Verotoxic E. coli, which can cause diarrhea or hemorrhagic colitis occasionally progress to hemolytic uremic syndrome, an important cause of acute renal failure in children as well as morbidity and mortality in adults. The close interaction that exists between pets and humans may facilitate the easy transfer of verotoxic E. coli from pets to humans. A total of 150 samples comprising of 120 dog faeces (60 samples each of healthy and diarrhoeic dogs) and 30 cat faeces (25 healthy and 5 diarrhoeic) were processed to screen the presence of verotoxic E. coli from Mathura and Aligarh district of U diarrhoeic dogs 26 (40%) and cats 1 (20%) in comparison to healthy dogs 16 (26.66%) and cats 4 (16.00%). Out of total 120 samples of dog faeces, only 3 (2.5%) samples were found positive for r O157 along with the stx1 gene. No sample was found positive for r O111 from any source. The above findings suggested that pets can be an important reservoir of VTEC and may be a potential source of zoonotic diseases to humans and may become a public health threat.

Keywords: Cats, diarrhoeic pets, dogs, healthy pets, PCR, verotoxic E. coli