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Distribution of Escherichia coli F4 adhesion phenotypes in pigs of 15 Chinese and Western breeds and a White DurocxErhualian intercross

Xueming Yan^1,2,, Xiang Huang^1,, Jun Ren¹, Zhengzhi Zou¹, Shujin Yang¹, Jing Ouyang¹, Weihong Zeng¹, Bin Yang¹, Shijun Xiao¹ and Lusheng Huang¹

¹ Key Laboratory for Animal Biotechnology of Jiangxi Province and the Ministry of Agriculture of China, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, PR China

² Department of Biology, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330038, PR China

Correspondence
Lusheng Huang
Lushenghuang{at}hotmail.com

Received January 22, 2009
Accepted April 29, 2009

Diarrhoea in newborn and weaned piglets is mainly caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) with fimbriae F4. To investigate the prevalence of resistance to three fimbrial strains, F4ab, F4ac and F4ad, among Chinese indigenous pigs and Western commercial pigs introduced into China, we determined the ETEC F4 adhesion phenotypes in 292 pure-bred piglets from three Western commercial breeds and 12 Chinese indigenous breeds, and a total of 1093 adult pigs in a White DurocxErhualian intercross, by an in vitro microscopic adhesion assay. All the Tibet and Lantang pigs and a majority of the Erhualian and Rongchang pigs were resistant (nonadherent) to ETEC F4 whereas all the Laiwu pigs and most of the Jiangquhai and Tongcheng pigs were susceptible (adhesive) to at least one of the F4 strains. Yushan Black pigs were uniformly resistant to F4ab, and Jinhua pigs were predominantly resistant to F4ac. Susceptible and resistant animals were observed in the other breeds, indicating that diarrhoea caused by ETEC F4 could be prevalent in these breeds. This study confirmed the existence of eight previously reported F4 adhesion patterns, and supported the assumption that the three F4 receptors are encoded by distinct loci. Expression of the weakly adherent phenotype was observed in six pure-bred piglets and 90 adult F₂/F₃ animals, and the inheritance of this phenotype and its correlation with susceptibility to disease are still not known.

These authors contributed equally to this work.