Bacteriological and molecular studies on Clostridium perfringens isolated from sheep in three Egyptian provinces

The study was intended to determine types of Clostridium perfringens and their toxins in diseased sheep with suspected enterotoxaemia, apparently healthy in contact sheep and soil in three Egyptian provinces (one year study). A total of 800 sheep were visited regularly over a period of one year to record cases of enterotoxaemia and collection of samples for bacteriological examination and toxin genotyping using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by using four primers set specific for genes encoding toxin production (alpha, beta, epsilon and iota). Based on bacteriological examination, the percentage of C. perfringens isolated from soil, apparently healthy, and diseases sheep were 41, 12 and 59%, respectively. The results of multiplex PCR indicated that C. perfringens type A was the predominant followed by C. perfringens type D with an incidence rate of 43 and 42.7% from positive samples, respectively. While, C. perfringens type B was successfully recovered only from 14.61% of positive samples. Worth mentioning, the data presented collectively highlighted the role of soil and apparently healthy as a potential source of re-infection. Moreover, it is recommended that C. perfringens type A should be included in vaccine schedule in order to afford adequate protection and lessen the adverse economic loses of sheep clostridial diseases.    Key words: Clostridia, sheep enterotoxaemia, multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Egypt.