Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli infection in a rabbit model

Type strains of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli EAEC (17-2, serotype O3: H2; JM 221, serotype O92:H33), isolates from an adult and a child with diar rhoea and an asymptomatic colonised child were used to orally infect adult rabbits. The experimental animals were followed up and sacrificed at define d time periods. Colonisation of both small and large intestine was seen wit h all strains and isolates used. Isolates from an adult patient with diarrh oea (MP 27) and from an asymptomatic colonised child from the community (KM 1337) were recovered from the small intestine during the first week of inf ection and subsequently from the large intestine. A total of seven rabbits was infected with MP 27; while colonising the gastrointestinal tract of all seven rabbits, this isolate caused diarrhoea in only one. On ultrastructur al examination, the rabbits infected with 17-2 showed invasion of lymphoid follicles, Bacteria were seen in intercellular spaces and within M cells, a finding that has not previously been described. It is clearly possible to produce gut colonisation by oral infection with EAEC in adult rabbits with normal flora.