Toxinotyping of Clostridium perfringens Isolated from Healthy and Diarrhoeic Sheep and Goats

A study was designed to determine the prevalence of Clostridium perfringens types, their toxins and antibiotic resistance patterns in sheep and goats of Krishna and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. A total of 158 samples (rectal swabs and intestinal tissues) were collected from healthy and diarrhoeic sheep and goats. Molecular typing of bacterial isolates was performed by polymerase chain reaction. Antibiotic resistance patterns were studied using the disk diffusion method. From 158 samples, 34 isolates of C. perfringens were obtained with a prevalence rate of 50.00% in diarrhoeic lambs followed by 44.12% in diarrhoeic sheep and 5.88% in healthy sheep. Toxinotyping of isolated strains (n=34) revealed that 30 (88.24%), one (2.94%) and three (8.83%) isolates were type A, D and F, respectively. The highest resistance was observed for sulphamethizole (66.67%) followed by co-trimoxazole (58.33%), enrofloxacin (41.67%) and tetracycline (33.33%). The findings revealed that most of the isolates were characterized as C. perfringens type A and it may indicate the incidence of yellow lamb disease in this area, as the symptoms were similar to yellow lamb disease i.e. diarrhoea, bloat, jaundice, abdominal pain, haemoglobinuria including occasional deaths.