Extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) are responsible for many infectious diseases in livestock, such as airsacculitis in poultry, acute mastitis in dairy animals and neonatal septicaemia and urinary tract infections (UTI) in pigs and cattle. In their animal hosts, ExPEC have to cope with low iron availability. By using different strategies, ExPEC strains are able to retrieve iron sequestered by host proteins. One of these strategies is the use of siderophores, which are small secreted molecules with high affinity for iron. ExPEC are known to synthesize up to four different types of siderophores: enterobactin, salmochelins, yersiniabactin and aerobactin. Steps required for iron acquisition by siderophores include (1) siderophore synthesis in the cytoplasm, (2) siderophore secretion, (3) ferri-siderophore reception, (4) ferri-siderophore internalization and (5) iron release in the cytoplasm. Each siderophore has specific properties and may be differentially regulated to provide different advantages, potentially allowing ExPEC to adapt to different environmental conditions or to overcome host innate immunity. Iron acquisition by siderophores plays a significant role in ExPEC virulence and, as it requires outer membrane receptors, it constitutes an interesting target for the development of vaccines that could be used to limit the number of infectious diseases due to ExPEC in livestock. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.