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

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); diarrhoea! 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. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.