A contemporary review of incidence and detection of enterotoxigenic E. coli strains in human diarrheal diseases.

Methodical possibilities for detection of enterotoxic strains of E. coli and the frequency of appearence of these strains in infants and adults suffering from diarrheal diseases are reviewed. Our own study, using the ligated rabbit intestinal loop, revealed 6.8% incidence of enterotoxin producing strains among the classical enteropathogenic serotypes of E. coli, isolated from stools of infants with mild diarrhoea. The model of mice intestinal loop was not found to be suitable for detection of enterotoxin of E. coli strains. The most sensitive model seems to be the intestine of precolostral piglet; however this model is not suitable for routine tests.