Evaluation of Clostridium novyi infection in liver of sheep and cattle slaughtered in the slaughterhouses of Alborz province by culture, biochemical and PCR methods

Clostridium novyi type B is the causative agent of liver infectious diseases. Bacterial spores enter the body along with food and through the lymph system get into the liver. Due to the hypoxic condition of the liver, bacteria converts to the vegetative form and replicates and produces a large amount of toxin, which ultimately leads to death. Therefore, the detection of toxin and bacterial isolation from animal gastrointestinal contents especially the liver are used to diagnose of disease. In order to control the disease, the frequency of Clostridium novyi isolates from infected animals in Alborz province is essential to be known. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Clostridium novyi in slaughterhouses in Alborz province. In this study, 386 liver samples were collected from the slaughterhouses, then the bacteriological (culture in selective horse blood medium and specific liquid medium, motility test and gram staining) and biochemical tests (fermentation of sugars, lecithinase, lipase, gelatinase, Indol, milk digestion and catalase) were done, and the samples were finally confirmed using PCR. For this purpose, the primers were designed using alpha toxin DNA sequence. Results showed that the infection rate in the slaughterhouses was 37 (9.5%) in which 33 cases (89.18%) had concurrent contamination with Clostridium novyi and only 4 cases without Fasciola infection were detected. Due to the highly economic losses, vaccination is very urgent