Mastitis in dairy buffalo and cattle in Egypt due to Clostridium perfringens: prevalence, incidence, risk factors and costs

Although Clostridium perfringens is recognised as an important cause of clostridial enteric diseases, there is only limited knowledge about the association of particular C. perfringens toxinotypes (types A to E) with mastitis in domestic animals. In this study, mastitis was detected in 213/623 (34.12%) and 8/83 (9.64%) of the quarter milk samples collected from cases of clinical mastitis in cows and buffalo, respectively. The micro-organism was isolated in an incidence of 16/357(4.48%) of milk samples from cows and 1/25(4.0%) of samples from buffalo. Infection in one quarter was the most typical situation found (83% in cows and 87% in buffalo). Clostridium perfringens infection was also correlated to the season, with the highest proportion of isolates being found during spring (10.71%) and winter (7.07%). Using the classical toxin neutralisation typing method, 17 strains, isolated from cow and buffalo milk, were identified as C. perfringens type A, and selected for molecular analysis. Polymerase chain reaction detected the alpha/cpa gene while the beta/cpb anti epsilon/etx genes went undetected. The authors believe that C. perfringens has the potential to produce disease on its own or to predispose the udder to disease caused by major mastitis and environmental pathogens.