Isolation and antibiotic susceptibility testing of Clostridium perfringens isolated from packaged wing, neck, liver and gizzard of broilers in retail stores of Northestern of Iran

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram positive, rod shape bacteria that could produce spore and well known as an important pathogen for human being and different species of animals. C. perfringens known as causative agent of many intestinal disorders, such as necrotic and hemorrhagic enteritis in animals and food poisoning in humans. The aim of this study was to determine the contamination of packaged pieces of wings, neck, liver and gizzard of broiler chicken sold in shopping centers with C. perfringens and to determine antimicrobial susceptibility profile of isolates against common veterinary medicine and medicine antibacterial drugs. Method and Materials: In the present study, 180 samples were obtained randomly from fresh packaged wing, neck, liver and gizzard, in Mashhad, Iran. Samples were cultured on Blood agar media, using 7% defibrinated sheep blood and specific media such as Tryptone Sulfite Neomycin Agar (TSN) and Tryptone Sulfite Cycloserine Agar (TSC). Sensitivity of the isolates was determined base on disk diffusion method. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion using 15 different antibiotics. Out of the 180 samples, 6 samples (2 from wing, 2 from liver, 1 from neck and 1 from gizzard samples) were positive. All of the isolates were conducted for antibiotic susceptibility testing against 15 antimicrobial agents by disc diffusion method. We found out that all the isolates (100%) were resistance to gentamycin, erythromycin and cloxacillin and also susceptible to ampicillin, penicillin and cephalexin. Our findings shows that food stuffs in Iran could infected with resistant C. perfringens that potentially could be a hygienic threat for society.