Present status of clostridium perfringens infection in broiler chickens

ABSTRACT

This study was done on 728 intestinal and liver samples collected from 84 commercial broiler chicken farms aged 1-11 weeks-old located at Behera, Kafr El-Sheikh and El-Gharbia governorates. Anaerobic bacteriological examination revealed isolation of 430 Clostridial strains that identified as; 236 [54.9%] C. perfringens and 194 [45.1%] other clostridial species. Out of the 236 isolated C. perfringens; 61 isolates were toxigenic that subtyped into types A [83.6%], B [1.6%], C [1.6%], and D [13.1%]. C. perfringens also recovered from waterers, feeders and litter surrounding the birds with a percentage of 27.3%, 50% and 22.7%; respectively. The mortality rate reached 100% in 5 day-old broiler chicks when intramuscularly inoculated with broth culture of C. perfringens type A,D or B and C toxins of C. perfringens in an arrangement identical to type A,B,C and D. These results suggested that the multiplex-PCR as a rapid, accurate and humanitarian assay could replace the seroneutralization methods with mice and guinea pigs in detection and typing of toxigenic C. perfringens strains