Identifying verotoxigenic Escherishia.coli isolated from cold water fishes by Multiplex PCR in Chaharmahal Va Bakhtiary province

Introduction : this study was to determine the prevalence of verotoxigenic e.coli and their virulence factors isolated from coldwater fishes (rainbow trout) using multiplex pcr. materials and method s: a total of 100 samples of feces and skins were collected at the final step of production in the production pools. bacteriological and biochemical examination were done for isolation and confirmation that the isolates belonged to the e.coli species. multiplex pcr were used to identifying the stx1, stx2, eae and hly genes. results : the results showed that none of the isolates was e.coli o157: h7, but other non- o157 verotoxigenic strains were isolated. totally 14% of the skin isolates and 4% of fecal isolates contain stx1, stx2, eae genes. discussion and conclusion : the results of this study revealed that the rainbow trout meat may play a role as a vehicle to transmit the verotoxigenic e.coli to human. water may contaminate with feces of animals, birds, contaminated fish foods and workers. controlling the contaminating ones is recommended.