tIn the present study the occurrence, genotypic characteristics and relatedness of Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolated from 235 fecal samples of diarrheic chil-dren (n = 75), sheep (n = 80), and cattle (n = 80) were investigated. Overall, STEC was foundin 4%, 61.2%, and 18.7% of diarrheic children, sheep and cattle, respectively. Three of the fourSTEC isolates from diarrheic children yielded the stx1/ehly profile. The predominant viru-lence profile of sheep isolates was stx1/ehly (85.2%), but cattle isolates were heterogeneous.Genetic relatedness and diversity of 36 selected isolates were analyzed by enterobacterialrepetitive consensus sequences fingerprinting (ERIC) and phylogrouping. In total, 19 ERIC-types were observed in humans (n = 2), sheep (n = 5), and cattle (n = 12) isolates. The majorityof the sheep STEC were assigned into B1 phylogroup (83.3%), but cattle isolates belongedto different phylogroups with B1 predominance. Three human STEC isolates had the majorcharacteristics of sheep isolates but revealed distinct fingerprint. These findings indicatethat cattle can potentially carry a diverse group of STEC strains.

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