Genotyping of Clostridium perfringens isolated from domestic and exotic ruminants and swine.

Clostridium perfringens types A, B, C, D and E are known to cause severe enteritis/enterotoxaemia and diseases (especially caused by type A) belonging to the gas oedema complex in many species. Samples from the small intestine as well as faeces of domestic and exotic animals suffering from enterotoxaemic signs or having died within days after first occurance of toxaemia were submitted for typing C. perfringens toxovars by multiplex PCR. The following species have been investigated: domestic sheep (Ovis ammon; n = 10), domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus; n = 26), Japanese serow (Capricornis sumatraensis; n = 4), lechwe waterbuck (Hydrotragus leche; n = 1), blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra; n = 1), European reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus; n = 4), domestic swine (Sus scrofa; n = 52), and collared peccary (Tayassu albirostris; n = 1). Interestingly, the predominant C. perfringens toxovar in domestic sheep was type A. This toxovar could also be diagnosed in all reindeer, in three Japanese serows, one lechwe waterbuck and most pigs (n = 47), the majority of those being at suckling age. Type D was the most prevalent toxovar (n = 18) in domestic goats, but also types A and E could be identified as pathogens in this species. Type C could only be found in domestic swine (n = 5) and in one case of clostridiosis in a Japanese serow. Two cases of enterotoxaemia in goats, one case in reindeer, and a single case in blackbuck and collared peccary were caused by C. perfringens type E. Genotyping of C. perfringens is recommended before starting vaccination programmes as it could be shown, that the importance of specific toxovars has been underestimated in specific species and/or age groups.