Characterization of E.coli strains recovered from urban pigeons (Columba livia)

The present study was undertaken to determine the occurrence of diarrheagenic E. coli strains in fresh feces from urban pigeons.Out of 50 fecal samples 30 isolates of E.coli were recovered. Of 30 isolates, 12 showed hemolysin production and 18 showed congo red binding ability. All the isolates were studied for their antibiotic sensitivity pattern employing disc diffusion technique using commercially available antibiotic discs. Highest sensitivity (92.00%) was shown towards amoxicillin followed by gentamycin (88.00%) and oxytetracycline (64.00%). The isolates were found to be resistant towards ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, cephalexin and ceftriazone. Serotyping results indicated that out of 30 isolates, 07 were untypable. 03 were rough and remaining 20 were typed as O102 (5), O25 (3), O97(5), O13(4), O20 (1), O85 (1) and O4 (1).