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Bacteriological and molecular studies of Clostridium perfringens infections in newly born calves

Trop Anim Health Prod • 2017
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Publication Information
Authors Selim, A., Elhaig, M.M., Zakaria, I., Ali, A.,
Keywords Bacteriology; Clostridium perfringens; Multiplex PCR; Seasonal prevalence
Journal Trop Anim Health Prod
Publisher Not Available
Volume 49
Issue Not Available
Pages 201–205
publication.type International
Paper Link Not Available
Supplementary Materials Not Available
Abstract
Clostridium perfringens is considered one of the important causes of calf diarrhea. Two hundred and twenty-seven clinical samples from newly born and dead diarrheic calves were examined bacteriologically and by PCR. Bacterial culture identified C. perfringens in 168 of 227 samples. A total of 144 of these isolates were lecithinase positive, indicating C. perfringens Type A. In addition, 154 isolates were positive by alpha toxin encoding gene-PCR assay. This study showed high agreement between the results of bacteriology and multiplex PCR. The multiplex PCR typed all isolates that were typed as C. perfringens Type A through bacteriologic methods, but ten samples that were lecithinase negative were positive in the multiplex PCR. The study showed the highest occurrence of C. perfringens Type A isolations from calves during the winter and autumn compared with other seasons.