Rabbit EPEC: a model for the study of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

Colibacillosis has become, in rational rabbit breeding units of western Eur ope, one of the most economically and pathologically important issues since the beginning of the 1980s. Data on the virulence mechanisms and the pheno typic characters of the E. coli strains that are responsible for lethal dia rrhoea epizootics have been gathered throughout the years. These strains ar e representative of a pathovar called enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) in di arrhoeagenic strains of human origin. EPEC are mainly characterized by thei r ability to induce a typical lesion called attachment/effacement, whose de terminism lies in a pathogenicity island: the locus of enterocyte effacemen t. The understanding of the pathogenesis mechanisms of this type of bacteri a should lead to new tools helping to control the disease in rabbit farming . (C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.