Abstract
BackgroundClostridium (C.) perfringens is the causative agent of several diseases in animals and humans, including histotoxic and enteric infections. To gain more insight into the occurrence of its different toxin-genotypes in dairy herds, including those toxin genes previously associated with diseases in cattle or humans, 662 isolates cultivated from feces, rumen content and feed collected from 139 dairy farms were characterized by PCR (detecting cpa, cpb, iap, etx, cpe, and both allelic variants of cpb2).ResultsIsolates from feces were assigned to type A (cpa positive, n = 442) and D (cpa and etx positive, n = 2). Those from rumen content (n = 207) and feed (n = 13) were all assigned to type A. The consensus and atypical variants of the cpb2 gene were detected in 64 (14.5 %) and 138 (31.22 %) of all isolates from feces, and 30 (14.5 %) and 54 (26.1 %) of all isolates from rumen content, respectively.ConclusionBoth allelic variants of cpb2 occurred frequently in animals without signs of acute enteric disease, whereby the atypical variant dominated. Five (0.8 %) of all type A isolates were positive for the cpe gene. Therefore, the present study indicates that dairy cows are no primary source for potentially human pathogenic enterotoxin gene positive strains.
Highlights
Clostridium (C.) perfringens is the causative agent of several diseases in animals and humans, including histotoxic and enteric infections
In total, 662 isolates of C. perfringens were cultured from samples from 129 farms
With the PCR developed by Baums et al [17], 17 (2.57 %) of the C. perfringens isolates were negative for all six toxin genes, with repetition
Summary
Clostridium (C.) perfringens is the causative agent of several diseases in animals and humans, including histotoxic and enteric infections. Most important are gas gangrene, which occurs mainly after contamination of wounds with cells or spores [2], and enteric diseases that either solely affect the gut or in addition induce generalized symptoms, e.g. pulpy kidney disease in ruminants [3]. It is classified into five types, A to E, depending on the production of four major toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon, and iota) [3, 4]. The coding gene (cpa) is chromosomallylocated, highly-conserved, and present in all C
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