Table 1.
Frequency of enteric pathogens and detection of selected virulence factors and virulence genes in diarrheic (n = 92) and apparently healthy (n = 62) dogs.
| Enteropathogens | Dogs (n = 154) |
p value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diarrheic (n = 96) (%) |
Non diarrheic (n = 62) (%) |
|||
| Clostridioides difficile | A+B+CDT- | 11 (11.9)* | 0 (0) | 0.032 |
| A−B- CDT- | 8 (8.7) | 3 (4.8) | 0.526 | |
| A/B toxinsb | 8/11 (72.3) | – | – | |
| Clostridium perfringens | Type A | 46 (50) | 22 (34.5) | 0.099 |
| cpe+ | 10 (10.8)* | 0 (0) | 0.006 | |
| cpe+netF+ | 7 (7.6)* | 0 (0) | 0.042 | |
| CPEa | 5/10 (50) | – | – | |
| Escherichia coli | Enteropathogenic (EPEC) | 11 (11.9) | 11 (17.7) | 0.352 |
| Shiga Toxin-Producing (STEC) | 1 (0.9) | 2 (3.2) | 0.565 | |
| Enterotoxigenic (ETEC) | 3 (3.2) | 1 (1.6) | 0.648 | |
| Atypical | 1 (0.9) | 0 (0) | 1.000 | |
| Salmonella sp. | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – | |
| Parvovirus (CPV) | 10 (10.8)* | 0 (0) | 0.006 | |
| Canine Coronavirus | 2 (2.1) | 2 (3.2) | 1.000 | |
| Rotavirus | 1 (0.9) | 1 (1.6) | 1.000 | |
| Giardia sp. | 10 (10.8) | 2 (3.2) | 0.124 | |
*Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test were used to evaluate possible association between enteropathogens in diarrheic and healthy dogs or age groups. P values of <0.05 were considered significant (in bold).
a
Enterotoxin (CPE) detection by commercial EIA on unthawed aliquots of stool samples positive for C. perfringens cpe+isolation.
b
A/B toxin detection by commercial EIA on unthawed aliquots of stool samples positive for toxigenic C. difficile isolation.