The purpose of this work was to characterize 47 Escherichia coli strains isolated from 32 pigs diagnosed with postweaning diarrhea and three pigs with edema disease by PCR. Forty two (95.5 %) of the strains isolated from diarrheic pigs were characterized as enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and 2 (4.5 %) as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Fourteen (33.3 %) ETEC strains were positive for est/estII/fedA genes. The most complex genotype was eltA/estI/faeG/aidA. Strains isolated from pigs with ED were classified as porcine STEC and were stx2e/aidA carriers. Eleven (25 %) strains carried the gene encoding adhesin protein AIDA-I. However, genes coding for F5, F6, F41, intimin and Paa were not detected. The development of vaccines generating antibodies against prevalent E. coli adhesins in Argentina could be useful for the prevention of PWD and ED.