Molecular Studies on Clostridium Perfringens Resistant to Tetracycline Group

Abstract

Clostridia are spore-forming bacteria causing health hazards for human beings and animals ranging from wound infection to necrotic enteritis. In the present work, 60 dropping samples were collected from diarrhoeic broilers of 7 different farms in Sharkia and Cairo Governorates for isolation and identification of C.perfringens by conventional methods. The results showed that incidence of C. perfringens was 41% (25/60), 23 out of them were proved to be C. perfringens type A, while only two isolates were type C. Antibiotic susceptibility test revealed that 88% of C. perfringens isolates were sensitive to amoxicillin, 84% were sensitive to cefotaxime, cefuroxime, cefotraxion, piperacillin and bacitracin, 80% were sensitive to erythromycin, 76% were sensitive to fuscidic acid, 64% were sensitive to tetracycline, doxycycline and clindamycin, while 24% of the isolates were sensitive to lincomycin. Furthermore, MICs for tetracycline resistant isolates were ranged from 8-32 µg/ml. PCR was applied to detect α-toxin gene of C. perfringens and tetracycline resistant genes (tetB, tetM and tetK). All isolates gave positive amplification for alpha toxin gene, while tetB gene was detected in two out of 5 isolates , but tetK and tetM genes weren’t detected in any isolates.