Incidence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility toClostridium perfringensin Premarket Broilers in Taiwan

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens infection causes subclinical and clinical necrotic enteritis in poultry flocks, and it is estimated to result in US$2 billion of losses worldwide every year. The aims of this study were to determine the incidence, toxin types, and antimicrobial resistance levels to C. perfringens isolated from premarket, 5-wk-old, clinically healthy broiler chickens in Taiwan, and to examine the relationships between intestinal lesions and the numbers of C. perfringens in intestinal contents. In total, 435 samples of chicken ileum contents were collected from 98 broiler farms during June 2012 to February 2013. The C. perfringens isolation rate was 9.9% (43/435). The positive rate of tested farms was 29.6% (29/98). All the isolates were C. perfringens type A, only possessing the cpa gene encoding for toxin α. No netB gene encoding NetB toxin associated with necrotic enteritis, and no cpe gene encoding for the C. perfringens enterotoxin causing human intestinal disorder were detected. A quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the mean C. perfringens number in the intestinal contents was 3.9 × 10(6) colony-forming units (CFU)/g, ranging from 6.85 × 10(2) to 1.61 × 10(7) CFU/g. The gross and histopathologic lesions revealed a positive correlation (p < 0.05) between lesion score and C. perfringens number in the ilea of C. perfringens -positive chickens. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests of all C. perfringens isolates indicated that the minimum inhibitory concentration inhibiting 50% of isolates (MIC50) for amoxicillin, bacitracin, chlortetracycline, enrofloxacin, erythromycin, florfenicol, and lincomycin was ≤0.125, 0.5, 128, 0.25, ≥256, 2, and ≥256 μg/ml, respectively. Most of the C. perfringens isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin, bacitracin, and enrofloxacin but resistant to chlortetracycline, erythromycin, and lincomycin. Interestingly, C. perfringens isolated from chickens with severe lesions had higher MIC50 for erythromycin and lincomycin than those isolates from chickens with mild lesions. Conclusively, reductions in both the incidence of C. perfringens infection on farms and the concentrations of C. perfringens in intestines to improve broiler health are still needed in Taiwan.

Prevalence and multilocus sequence typing of Clostridium perfringens isolated from 4 duck farms in Shandong province, China

“…Genotyping results showed that all isolates were identified as C. perfringens type A, which was consistent with previous reports in China and other countries ( Fan et al., 2016 ; Zhang et al., 2018 ). Enterotoxin gene ( cpe ) was closely associated not only with antibiotic-associated diarrhea but also with outbreaks of food poisoning ( Songer, 1996 ; Sarker et al., 2000 ; Osman et al., 2012 ; Gaucher et al., 2015 ).…”

“…Among the 424 samples collected in this study, the total positive rate of C. perfringens was 48.82% (207/424). Among which the positive rate of cloacal swab samples was 49.84% (158/317); this value was higher than those reported in chickens from central China and Taiwan (23.1 and 29.6%, respectively) ( Fan et al., 2016 ; Zhang et al., 2018 ), 24.72 and 23.28% from 2 commercial farms in Canada, 43.23% in chickens of Jordan ( Chalmers et al., 2008b ; Gharaibeh et al., 2010 ) but lower than that reported in Egypt (57.9%) ( Osman et al., 2012 ). In this study, the positive rate of samples differs in different farms, among which the positive rate (75.51%; 38/51) in farm 2 was the highest, and it was statistically higher than that of the other 3 farms ( P < 0.01).…”

“…The positive rate of cpe in all isolates was 0.5%, which was basically consistent with data reported in previous studies. For example, in Taiwan, Jordan, Sweden, and Canada, the positive rate of cpe in isolates from chicken farms was 0% ( Engström et al., 2003 ; Chalmers et al., 2008b ; Gharaibeh et al., 2010 ; Fan et al., 2016 ), and the cpe positive rate detected in chicken of central China was 3.08% ( Zhang et al., 2018 ).…”

Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacterial Poultry Pathogens: A Review

“…A study from Taiwan reported MIC50 values of erythromycin and lincomycin for C. perfringens isolated from intestinal samples with severe lesions were significantly higher compared with those with mild lesions ( 96 ). However, a study from Korea compared resistance patterns between isolates from healthy and sick flocks, and found no difference ( 91 ).…”

Antibiotic Use in Poultry Production and Its Effects on Bacterial Resistance

“…This trend of resistance was similar to that observed in 43 C. perfringens isolates from the ileum of 5-week old broiler chicken in Taiwan. Most of the C. perfringens isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin, bacitracin and enrofloxacin but resistant to erythromycin, lincomycin and chlortetracycline [88].…”