Isolation and genotyping of Clostridium perfringens isolated from healthy and diarrheic dogs

Clostridium perfringens has been known as a cause of diarrhoea in dogs. The aim of this research was isolation C. perfringens by culturing and toxinotyping by PCR molecular method. In this research 151 dogs’ faecal samples were collected from northwest of Iran, 131 of which were apparently healthy, and 20 of which were diarrheic. These faecal samples were cultured on 5% sheep blood agar; the suspected colonies with double homolysis that using multiplex and single polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay were admitted to detect toxinotypes of the isolates by specific primers. C. perfringens strains were isolated from 5/20 (25%) the diarrheic group and 31/131(23.8%) the non-diarrheic group. All isolates (36/151) were classified as C. perfringens type A (cpa). Fourteen isolates (38.8%) with cpatpeL- profile and one isolate (2.8%) had cpatpeL- toxin’s profile. More studies are needed to elucidate the epidemiology of C. perfringens in dogs and its role as a zoonotic agent and public health hazard. Based on author’s knowledge, this is the first study was performed in order to isolation C. perfringens and genotyping from dogs in Iran. The cpa gene was reported from one C. perfringens isolated from healthy dogs.