Characteristics of Clostridium perfringens isolated from chicken in Korea

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is major cause of Necrotic Enteritidis (NE) in poultry. C. perfringens types A and C are the only types linked to the disease observed in avian species and toxins alpha (encoded by cpa), beta (cpb), beta-2 (cpb2), enterotoxin (cpe) and netB are the most significant in disease. Researchers report here the toxinotyping of NE-producing and commensal isolates of C. perfringens from chickens in Korea. All isolates recovered from NE lesion or normal flora were type A (cpa positive, cpb negative, etx negative, cplo negative). The cpb2 and luxS showed no significant difference between NE-producing and commensal isolates but of the 27 netB positive isolates, 25 (36.2%) had been recovered from 69 chickens withNE while only 2 (4.9%) isolates were recovered from 41 chickens with normal flora.