Molecular characterization and antimicrobial resistance profile of Clostridium perfringens type A isolates from humans, animals, fish and their environment

- First ever systematic study in India emphasizes isolation and molecular characterization of Clostridium perfringens type A (cpa) from humans, animals, fish and their environmental sources.
- A high prevalence from pig diarrhoeal cases indicate pig might be a major source of C. perfringens type A.

The study was aimed to characterize, and determine antibiogram of C. perfringens type A isolated from the feces of human and animal diarrhoeal cases, as well as healthy animals, meat of pigs and goats, gills and intestine of fish and samples from fish pond. A total of 460 samples, including human diarrhoeal cases (n = 130); diarrhoeal cases of pig (n = 52) and goat (n = 50); fecal samples from healthy pig (n = 50) and goat (n = 50); meat samples viz. pork meat (n = 52); goat meat (n = 50) and fish including their environmental sources (n = 26) were used for isolation and identification of C. perfringens type A. All the biochemically confirmed isolates were positive for species-specific 16S rRNA and cpa genes by PCR assays. Toxinotyping of C. perfringens type A isolates showed that overall prevalence of C. perfringens type A with only cpa+ gene was 43.2%; with cpa+ and cpb2+ genes was 45.4%; with cpa+ and cpe+ genes was 4.9%; however, with cpa+, cpb2+and cpe+ genes was 6.6%. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that 83.7% of isolates were resistant to three or more antibiotics.