Toxin genotyping of Clostridium perfringens field strains isolated from healthy and diseased chickens

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens is well known as the aetiological agent of necrotic enteritis in chicken. Type A and type c are considered the C. perfringens toxin types responsible for this disease. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of genes coding for α, β, ε, ι, β2 and enterotoxin in C. perfringens field strains collected from healthy and diseased chickens. Thirty-seven C. perfringens field strains were toxin typed: all strains resulted to be toxin type A and 3 of these tested positive for the presence of the toxin β2 coding gene. Four isolates showed the cpa gene with the insertion of a group II intron. Our findings confirm the most recent results reported from different countries and the data suggest that the role of C. perfringens type c should be revaluated in the etiopathogenesis of necrotic enteritis.