Clostridial diseases diagnosed in herbivores in Southern Brazil

ABSTRACT

Background: The genus Clostridium includes a group of Gram-positive, anaerobic bacteria which producing endosporesand produce toxins when encounter conditions favorable to their development. These toxins can be produced and absorbedin the intestinal lumen, as occurs in cases of enterotoxemia (Clostridium perfringens), or are produced in areas of tissuenecrosis after bacterial infections, as seen in tetanus (C. tetani), blackleg (C. chauvoei) and bacillary hemoglobinuria(C. haemolyticum), or in infections by C. chauvoei, C. novyi and C. septicum frequently associated with cases of malignant edema. The aim of this research was relates the epidemiological and clinicopathological aspects of the clostridiosisobserved in the region of infl uence of the Setor de Patologia Veterinária of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.Materials, Methods & Results: The necropsy records were reviewed from January 1996 to December 2011 to identifythe cases of clostridiosis that were diagnosed. In the period, 4.689 necropsies were performed by the (SPV-UFRGS). Atotal of 135 cases (2.88%) were associated with clostridiosis. The most prevalent clostridiosis included tetanus (48.15%)in horses, cattle, sheep and goats; botulism (17.04%) in cattle and enterotoxemia (22.96%) in goats. Additional diseaseswere blackleg (5.93%) in cattle, necrotic myositis/malignant edema in horses and sheep and bacillary hemoglobinuria incattle, both with 4 cases each (2.96%).Discussion: Tetanus, enterotoxemia, and botulism were the most prevalent clostrodiosis diagnosed at SPV-UFRGS andtogether accounted for approximately 90% of cases in the period 1996-2011. As for blackleg, bacillary hemoglobinuria,and necrotic myositis/malignant edema, together they represented slightly less than 10% of the clostridioses in the period.The most signifi cant clostridiosis in the period studied was tetanus, affecting cattle, sheep, and horses. There was a largenumber...(AU)