Colibacillosis is one of the devastating diseases, which leads to a profound economic loss to the poultry entrepreneurs and causes morbidity and mortality. The mortality rate may range from 5 - 50% in poultry. E. coli infection is mainly a ‘production disease’, which cause million of dollars loss annually and 40% of the loss directly or indirectly attributed by E. coli infection. In the present study, all the isolates evinced cent percent positive reactions to arabinose, fructose, galactose, maltose, mannitol, mannose, melibiose, xylose, decarboxylation and IMViC tests and negative reactions to adonitol, inulin, cellobiose, inositol, thus correlating with biotyping results of the standard E. coli organism. Pathogenic E. coli isolates in the present study, evinced negative reaction to adonitol and fermentation of dulcitol by 68.4%. This evidenced the variable biotyping pattern of pathogenic E. coli

E. coli, Biotyping, Pathogenic

Colibacillosis is one of the devastating diseases, which leads to a profound economic loss to the poultry entrepreneurs. Avian colibacillosis is one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality. Thirty seven isolates of avian E. coli were obtained by examining fifty four necropsy specimens collected from dead / ailing birds, suspicious of E. coli infection. The isolated E. coli organisms were identified and confirmed by inoculating into various basic and selective media and subjecting them to selective biochemical tests, based on previous (most of the) studies, thus enabling efficient comparison of their results. To obtain biotyping patterns of E. coli isolates, biochemical reactions of sixteen sugars and three amino acids were employed. It is evident that the biochemical characterization and biotyping is the most valuable test to early and easy identification of pathogenic E. coli

Thangavel Kandasamy (2022). Biotyping of Avian Pathogenic E. coli. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(3): 1723-1727