[en] Bovine enterotoxaemia is an acute to peracute syndrome occurring mainly in calves and characterized by the sudden or very rapid death of the calf, with colics, convulsions and nervous disorders as clinical signs, if any. The most pronounced lesion is a necrohaemorrhagic enteritis of the jejunum, the ileum, and sometimes the colon. Suckling beef calves are the most frequently affected ones. In 67% of the 78 field cases investigated, some kind of stress was observed 24 to 36 hours prior to the death: change in diet or pasture, vaccination... The most frequently isolated bacteria, and the one isolated in highest numbers, was non-sporulated non-enterotoxigenic toxinotype A Clostridium perfringens. Reproduction of the lesions was successful in a ligated intestinal loop assay in one calf with a few of these strains, more especially with one of them, which was shown later to produce another recently described toxin, the beta 2 toxin. A role for this beta 2 toxin in bovine enterotoxaemia is thus speculated for future research.
Disciplines :
Veterinary medicine & animal health Microbiology
Author, co-author :
Manteca, Christophe; Université de Liège - ULiège - ULG > Maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Bactériologie et Pathologies des Maladies bactériennes
Daube, Georges ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de sciences des denrées alimentaires > Microbiologie des denrées alimentaires
Mainil, Jacques ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Bactériologie et pathologie des maladies bactériennes
Language :
French
Title :
Etude du role de Clostridium perfringens dans l'entérotoxémie bovine
Alternative titles :
[en] Role of Clostridium perfringens in bovine enterotoxaemia
Publication date :
1999
Journal title :
Bulletin et Mémoires de l'Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique
ISSN :
0377-8231
Publisher :
Academie Royale de Médecine de Belgique, Bruxelles, Belgium