Incidence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility to Clostridium perfringens in Premarket Broilers in Taiwan.
Clostridium perfringens infection causes subclinical and clinical necrotic enteritis in poultry flocks, and it is estimated to result in US$2 billion of losses worldwide every year. The aims of this study were to determine the incidence, toxin types, and antimicrobial resistance levels to C. perfringens isolated from premarket, 5-wk-old, clinically healthy broiler chickens in Taiwan, and to examine the relationships between intestinal lesions and the numbers of C. perfringens in intestinal contents. In total, 435 samples of chicken ileum contents were collected from 98 broiler farms during June 2012 to February 2013. The C. perfringens isolation rate was 9.9% (43/435). The positive rate of tested farms was 29.6% (29/98). All the isolates were C. perfringens type A, only possessing the cpa gene encoding for toxin α. No netB gene encoding NetB toxin associated with necrotic enteritis, and no cpe gene encoding for the C. perfringens enterotoxin causing human intestinal disorder were detected. A quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the mean C. perfringens number in the intestinal contents was 3.9 × 10(6) colony-forming units (CFU)/g, ranging from 6.85 × 10(2) to 1.61 × 10(7) CFU/g. The gross and histopathologic lesions revealed a positive correlation (p < 0.05) between lesion score and C. perfringens number in the ilea of C. perfringens -positive chickens. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests of all C. perfringens isolates indicated that the minimum inhibitory concentration inhibiting 50% of isolates (MIC50) for amoxicillin, bacitracin, chlortetracycline, enrofloxacin, erythromycin, florfenicol, and lincomycin was ≤0.125, 0.5, 128, 0.25, ≥256, 2, and ≥256 μg/ml, respectively. Most of the C. perfringens isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin, bacitracin, and enrofloxacin but resistant to chlortetracycline, erythromycin, and lincomycin. Interestingly, C. perfringens isolated from chickens with severe lesions had higher MIC50 for erythromycin and lincomycin than those isolates from chickens with mild lesions. Conclusively, reductions in both the incidence of C. perfringens infection on farms and the concentrations of C. perfringens in intestines to improve broiler health are still needed in Taiwan.
A Zoonoses Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan.
Yang-Chi
YC
Fan
A Zoonoses Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan.
Chia-Lan
CL
Wang
B Department of Basic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box 6100, Mississippi State, MS 39762.
Chinling
C
Wang
A Zoonoses Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan.
Tsung-Cheng
TC
Chen
A Zoonoses Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan.
Chung-Hsi
CH
Chou
A Zoonoses Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan.
Hsiang-Jung
HJ
Tsai
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002645:Chickens; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D015994:Incidence; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
Clostridium perfringens; antimicrobial susceptibility; broiler; histopathology; real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction