Molecular detection and characterization of cpb2 gene in Clostridium perfringens isolates from healthy and diseased chickens

Tolooe A (1), Shojadoost B (1), Peighambari SM (1)

(1) Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract: Clostridium perfringens is an important pathogen in both human and veterinary medicine. Necrotic enteritis (NE) is the most clinically dramatic bacterial enteric disease of poultry induced by C. perfringens. The pathogenicity of this bacterium is associated with the production of extracellular toxins produced by some of its strains, such as beta2 toxin. The exact role of beta2 toxin in NE pathogenesis is still controversial. In the present  study, C. perfringens isolates from healthy and diseased poultry flocks from different parts of Iran were analyzed by PCR assay to determine the presence of all variants of the beta2 toxin gene (cpb2). The products of two positive cpb2 PCR reactions were sequenced, compared to each other and to the cpb2 sequences published in GenBank (by multiple alignment and phylogenetic analysis). The current work represents the first study of cpb2 in poultry C. perfringens isolates in Asia, and reports the highest percentage ofcpb2-positive isolates in both apparently healthy chickens (97.7%) and those afflicted with NE (94.4 %). The sequenced isolates were classified as atypical. This study did not show a direct correlation between NE occurrence and cpb2 presence.

Key words: Clostridium perfringens, necrotic enteritis, chicken, beta2 toxin, cpb2, Iran.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are especially grateful to Prof. J. Glenn Songer (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ) for his helpful suggestions and comments at different stages of this research.

COPYRIGHT

© CEVAP 2011

SUBMISSION STATUS

Received: August 8, 2010.

Accepted: January 25, 2011.

Abstract published online: January 26, 2011.

Full paper published online: February 28, 2011.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

There is no conflict.

FINANCIAL SOURCE

The Research Council of the University of Tehran provided the financial grant (protocol n. 7508049/6/7).

ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL

The present study was approved by the Research Committee of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran.

CORRESPONDENCE TO

BAHRAM SHOJADOOST, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, PO Box 14155-6453, Iran. Phone: 0098 21 6111-7150. Fax: 0098 21 6693 3222. Email: bshojae@ut.ac.ir.