Molecular Detection of Clostridium perfringens Type D Alpha and Epsilon Toxin Genes from Various Tissues in Lambs

Different tissues including duodenal scrapings, liver, lungs and kidneys of each infected (n=6) and control (n=4) lambs were subjected to pcr for the identification of alpha and epsilon toxin genes of clostridium perfringens type d. alpha and epsilon toxin genes were amplified at annealing temperature 52.2 and 50.2oc with amplicon size about 247bp and 665bp, respectively. a high percentage of alpha toxin genes of c. perfringens type d were amplified from duodenal scrapings followed by liver, kidneys lungs in cultured broth while a low percentage was observed when pcr was attempted directly on these tissues without prior culturing in media. it was concluded that distribution of alpha and epsilon toxin genes varies in different organs being the highest in duodenal tissue and pcr is suitable assay for the typing of c. perfringens toxin genes.