Necrotic enteritis in chickens: an important disease caused by Clostridium perfringens

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens, a spore-forming, Gram-positive, anaerobic bacterium, causes a variety of diseases throughout the animal kingdom. Each disease in each animal species tends to be caused by particular strains of C. perfringens and is defined by the tissue tropism and toxin profile of the bacteria. In chickens toxinotype A strains cause necrotic enteritis; a disease characterised by tissue damage to the proximal regions of the small intestine. In extreme cases the disease can be lethal but is more commonly seen as a sub-clinical disease that causes welfare issues and productivity losses within the poultry industry. The disease is currently well controlled in Australia by good management practices and, for some poultry producers, the use of antibiotics in the feed. However, the disease does cause significant issues in other regions including North America and Europe. In Europe there was a spike of necrotic enteritis disease when antibiotics were withdrawn from animal feeds. It is probable that the disease will become more of an issue in the Australian poultry industry as in-feed antibiotic use is reduced. Therefore, other methods of disease control are under investigation, including the development of vaccines.

Occurrence of Clostridium perfringens contamination in poultry feed ingredients: Isolation, identification and its antibiotic sensitivity pattern

“…It is ubiquitous in nature and can be found as a normal component of soil, contaminated food, decaying vegetation, marine sediment, intestinal tract of birds and poultry litter. The C. perfringens type A causes necrotic enteritis (NE) in poultry ( Longo et al., 2010 , Opengart and Songer, 2013 , Moore, 2015 ), the acute form of the disease causes high mortality in broiler birds ( Kaldhusdal and Lovland, 2000 ), where as the subclinical form causes erosion of intestinal mucosa results in decreased digestion and absorption, depressed weight gain and increased FCR ( Kaldhusdal et al., 2001 , Hofacre et al., 2003 ).…”

Genetic characterization, antibiogram pattern, and pathogenicity of Clostridium perfringens isolated from broiler chickens with necrotic enteritis

“…The PCRbased detection of α toxin is essential for the typical identification of α toxigenic C. perfringens strains (Baums et al, 2004). Several Clostridia enteric diseases occur in poultry, but probably the most common and severe one is NE, caused by C. perfringens type A (Moore, 2015). In Sweden, Engstrom et al (2003) demonstrated that all C. perfringens strains were classified as type A without enterotoxin genes.…”

“…It is well known that C. perfringens type A induces intestinal mucosal damage in chickens (Moore, 2015). The α toxin producing C. perfringens is phospholipase C sphingomyelinase that hydrolyzes lecithin into phosphorylcholine and diglyceride and as a consequence induces the production of inflammatory mediators causing blood vessel contraction, platelet aggregation, myocardial dysfunction, and finally acute death (Matsuda et al, 2019).…”

Occurrence of Clostridium perfringens in layer flocks of selected districts in Bangladesh: molecular typing, antimicrobial susceptibility

“…In poultry, toxinotype A strains of C. perfringens is considered to be the causative agent of necrotic enteritis (NE), however, to a minor extent, toxinotype C is also accountable for this disease occurrence. The disease is characterized by the damage of tissue in the proximal part of the small intestine (Guran and Oksuztepe, 2013;Moore, 2015;Swayne et al, 2013). Usually, the number of C. perfringens in the intestinal content is low (approximately 10 4 CFU/g of ingesta).…”