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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 1999, p. 358-361, Vol. 37, No. 2
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of beta 2-Toxigenic Clostridium perfringens in Horses with Intestinal Disorders

Cornelia Herholz,1 Raymond Miserez,2 Jacques Nicolet,2 Joachim Frey,2,* Michel Popoff,3 Maryse Gibert,3 Heinz Gerber,1 and Reto Straub1

Department of Equine Internal Medicine1 and Institute for Veterinary Bacteriology,2 Berne, Switzerland, and Institut Pasteur, Unité des Toxines Microbiennes, 28 F-75724 Paris Cedex 15, France3

Received 22 June 1998/Returned for modification 20 October 1998/Accepted 5 November 1998

The incidence of a new, yet unassigned toxin type of Clostridium perfringens containing the genes for the alpha -toxin and the recently described beta 2-toxin in horses with intestinal disorders is reported. The study included 18 horses suffering from typical typhlocolitis, 7 horses with atypical typhlocolitis, 16 horses with other intestinal disorders, and 58 horses without intestinal disease. In total, 20 samples of ingesta of the small and large intestines, five biopsy specimens of the intestinal wall, and 74 fecal samples were analyzed bacteriologically. C. perfringens isolates were typed for the presence of the alpha -, beta -, beta 2-, and varepsilon -toxin and enterotoxin genes by PCR, including a newly developed PCR for the detection of the beta 2-toxin gene cpb2. beta 2-Toxigenic C. perfringens was detected in samples from 13 of 25 (52%) horses with typical or atypical typhlocolitis, with a particularly high incidence in specimens of ingesta and biopsy specimens (75%), whereas only 6 of 16 specimens from horses with other intestinal diseases yielded beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens. No beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens was found in the samples from the 58 control horses, of which only one fecal sample contained C. perfringens type A. Among the samples from the 15 horses with fatal cases of typical and atypical typhlocolitis 9 (60%) were positive for beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens, whereas samples from only 4 of the 10 (40%) animals with nonfatal cases of infection were positive. We found an interesting correlation between the antibiotic-treated horses which were positive for beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens and lethal progression of the disease. No C. perfringens strains isolated in this study contained genes for the beta - and varepsilon -toxins and enterotoxin. The high incidence of beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens in samples of ingesta, biopsy specimens of the intestinal wall, and feces from horses suffering or dying from typhlocolitis together with the absence of this organism in healthy horses provides strong evidence that beta 2-toxigenic C. perfringens play an important role in the pathogenesis of typhlocolitis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute for Veterinary Bacteriology, University of Berne, Laenggasstrasse 122, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland. Phone: 41 31 631 2484. Fax: 41 31 631 2634. E-mail: jfrey{at}vbi.unibe.ch.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 1999, p. 358-361, Vol. 37, No. 2
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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