| Summary: | Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) causes disease, generally, named as enterotoxemia in the animals. This bacterium is a normal
inhabitant in gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) of animals and become harmful by increasing its colony counts as well as toxin liberation whenever
gets an opportunity of favorable conditions. This study focused molecular typing of C. perfringens (α, β, ε, ι toxins) and type "A" multidrug
resistance profile in diarrheic goats in Pakistan. Diarrheic fecal samples (n=192) were collected from goats and 80.73% (155/192) of the
samples were found positive for C. perfringens on the basis of culture growth and PCR. Elevated C. perfringens counts (>107 CFU/g) were
recorded in 33.55% (52/155) of positive samples, while, 66.45% (103/155) of the positive sample appeared in normal range of bacterial
counts (104-107 CFU/g). Molecular detection was carried out by targeting specific toxin genes i.e. cpa (α), cpb (β), etx (ε) and iap (ι) of C.
perfringens using PCR. Among the positive samples, 78.06% of the isolates were found as type "A", 5.16% isolates were type "B", 3.23% isolates
were type "C" while, 13.55% of the positive samples were type "D" C. perfringens. None of the isolates was found positive for iap toxin gene
(type "E"). C. perfringens type "A" was subjected to in-vitro antibiotic sensitivity test. Penicillin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone were found
sensitive while bacitracin, amoxicillin and ampicillin were found least sensitive antibiotics. This study concludes that C. perfringens type "A"
is highly prevalent among goats in Pakistan and clinical cases of enterotoxemia can be effectively dealt with penicillin, ciprofloxacin and
ceftriaxone antibiotics.
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