Molecular studies on Clostridium perfringens from broiler chicken farms in Egypt with special reference to biofilms and resistance to disinfectants

Abstract

At the most cases, C. perfringens has the ability to form biofilms in order to persist in the environment as, the predominant structural state of bacteria in nature is biofilms which increase the bacterial tolerance to disinfection that can lead to economic and health concerns. Two hundred eighteen samples (88 liver samples and 130 intestinal samples) were collected from clinically affected chickens with necrotic enteritis and revealed the presence of C. perfringens with percentage of 94.6 % and 78.4% respectively with total percentage 86.5 %. Twenty suspected C. perfringens isolates were examined by PCR and the results revealed that all of the examined samples were identified as C. perfringens and all samples revealed bands of AppB gene at 109 bp, 17 of 20 samples gave iolD gene bands at 98 bp and 13 of 20 samples gave ripH gene bands at 105 bp. These isolates were used for antiobiotic susceptibility testing and results showed that all isolates were highly susceptible to imipenem. Also, Most of isolates were highly susceptible to Ampicillin and Amoxicillin but, all isolates were resistant to Sulphamethoxazole trimethoprim, Colistin, Tylosine and Lincomycin and also, all isolates showed multidrug resistance. And these isolates were screened for biofilm producing ability and results showed that all the twenty isolates were strong biofilm producers except three isolates which were moderate biofilm producers, Nine types of disinfectants commonly used on poultry farms were used to test their efficacy on C. perfringens biofilms and Sodium hypochlorite 0.027% was the most efficient disinfectant on C. perfringens biofilms.