Research Article

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Clostridium perfringens associated with necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

Amer M. M., Dahshan A-H. M., , Abed A. H., Fahmy S.S.
Department of Poultry and Rabbit Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University. Department of Poultry and Rabbit Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt. Department of Bacteriology, Mycology and Immunology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt. Veterinarian at the Veterinary Medicine Directorate, General Organization for Veterinary services, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt

Abstract

Necrotic enteritis; caused by Clostridium perfringens, is one of the most important enteric diseases in poultry causing severe economic losses and increased mortalities worldwide. The current study was designed to isolate and characterize C. perfringens from 115 broiler chicken aged 3-6 weeks were collected from 15 farms in Beni-Suef and El-Menia Governorates during the period from September 2014 to September 2015. A total of 230 samples were aseptically collected form chicken flocks showing signs of depression, decreased feed intake, low conversion rate and diarrhea with variable daily mortalities. Intestinal and liver samples collected from diarrheic chicken were subjected to a bacteriological examination. It has been found that 29 (18.3%) C. perfringens isolates was recovered from 21 chickens of which 15 (51.7%) were toxigenic. The later typed using dermonecrotic test and PCR. Thirteen (86.7%) isolates belonged to type A while two (13.3%) isolates belonged to type B. Multiplex PCR was conducted with the primers mixture of alpha, beta, epsilon and iota toxins genes to determine the type of toxin among 15 of C. perfringens isolates. The current study revealed that 13 isolates were positive for α-toxin gene, while only two isolates were positive for alpha, beta and epsilon toxins genes.

Keywords

Broiler chickens, Necrotic Enteritis, Toxigenic C. perfringens, α-toxin gene