Molecular Characterization of
Clostridium perfringens Toxino-types and Type ‘D’ Multidrug
Resistance Profile in Diarrheic Sheep
Kashif Hussain1, Muhammad Ijaz1*,
Shahid Hussain Farooqi1, Syeda Nayab Batool Rizvi2,
Ahmad Ali1, Awais Ghaffar1, Amjad Islam Aqib1
and Muhammad Kashif Iqbal
1Department
of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Veterinary and
Animal Sciences, 54600-Lahore; 2Institute of Chemistry,
University of Punjab, Pakistan *Corresponding author: mijaz@uvas.edu.pk
Abstract
Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens)
causes enterotoxemia in animals. The bacterium is a normal inhabitant in the gut
of animals but become pathogenic and proliferate rapidly whenever finds suitable
conditions. It produces large amount of exotoxins, which prove lethal locally as
well as systemically. This study focused molecular characterization of different
C. perfringens toxins genes i.e.
cpa(α), cpb(β), etx(ε),
and iap(ι) along with C.
perfringens type ‘D’ antimicrobial resistance profile. A total of (n=192)
fecal samples from diarrheic sheep were processed and 92.19% (177/192) of the
samples were found positive for C.
perfringens. Elevated bacterial count (>107 CFU/g) was found in
37.85% (67/177) of the positive samples, while, 62.15% (110/177) of the positive
samples were in the normal range of bacterial count (104-107
CFU/g). Molecular typing of C.
perfringens spp was carried out by targeting specific toxin genes using PCR.
C. perfringens type ‘A’ was highly
prevalent 60.45% (107/177) among positive isolates, followed by type ‘D’, ‘C’
and ‘B’ which were 20.90% (37/177), 13.56% (24/177) and 05.08% (09/177)
respectively. None of the samples revealed
C. perfringens type ‘E’. The
in-vitro antimicrobial resistance profile of
C. perfringens type ‘D’ was evaluated.
Penicillin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone were found highly sensitive (100%)
while, bacitracin, ampicillin and erythromycin were found resistant against
C. perfringens type ‘D’. This study
concludes that different toxino-types of
C. perfringens are present with varying prevalence among sheep in Sargodha
division of Pakistan. The bacterium was found resistant to bacitracin,
ampicillin and erythromycin while, sensitive to penicillin, ciprofloxacin and
ceftriaxone.
To Cite This Article: Hussain K, Ijaz M, Farooqi SH, Rizvi SNB, Ali A,
Ghaffar A, Aqib AI, and Iqbal MK, 2018. Molecular Characterization of
Clostridium perfringens toxino-types
and Type ‘D’ multidrug resistance profile in Diarrheic Sheep. Pak Vet J, 38(3):
271-275. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.037