Occurrence and expression of toxin genes in Clostridium perfringens isolates from pigs

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens isolates were obtained from pigs of five porcine farms in Poland. The presence of C. perfringens was detected in 92% of faeces samples and its number ranged from 1.0 × 101 cfu/g to 1.2 × 107 cfu/g. All the isolates belonged to type A and 48.7% of them contained cpb2 gene. The qualitative assessment of toxin genes expression by type A subtype β2 isolates showed expression of cpa gene in 100% of strains and cpb2 gene in 71% of the analysed strains. The isolate from one-day-old piglets demonstrated also the expression of cpa and cpb2 genes.