Enterotoxaemia; Calves; Clostridium perfringens; E. coli; Salmonella
Abstract :
[en] The enterotoxaemia syndrome in Belgian Blue calves is characterised by a high case fatality rate, sudden death, lesions of haemorrhagic enteritis of the small intestine and, quite often an absence of other clinical signs but its cause has not been yet identified. As a first step in this identification, the aerobic and anaerobic intestinal flora of a population of 78 calves, originating from farms located in southern Belgium and that died in circumstances defined as "calf enterotoxaemia" (study population) and of 64 calves that died in other circumstances (control population) were studied qualitatively and quantitatively. The colonies were identified after subcultures with appropriate API sugar sets. Anaerobically Clostridium perfringens was isolated in higher numbers (mean values of 10(7)-10(7.5) colony forming units (CFU) versus 10(4)-10(5) CFU per ml of intestinal content) and from more animals (79 versus 19%) in the study population than in the control population, although individual results from both populations could overlap. Other clostridial species, i.e. mainly urease-negative C. sordellii and C. bifermentans, were isolated in high numbers (>10(6) CFU per ml of intestinal content) from a few animals in the study population only. All but one of the 705 C. perfringens isolates from both populations belonged to the A toxin type and none of the urease-negative C. sordellii was toxigenic. Gram-negative anaerobes were not isolated in high numbers from any of the samples. Aerobically beta-haemolytic E. coli were significantly more frequent among the study population, but were isolated from only 25% of the animals. Salmonella Typhimurium was isolated from only two animals in the study population. Less than 1% of the E. coli isolated were verotoxigenic and one-third were necrotoxigenic. At this stage only non-enterotoxigenic type A C. perfringens are thus statistically associated with the enterotoxaemia syndrome in Belgian Blue calves and fulfil the first of the Koch's postulates.
Disciplines :
Microbiology Veterinary medicine & animal health
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
Pirson, Vincianne; Université de Liège - ULiège - ULG > Maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Bactériologie et Pathologie des Maladies bactériennes
Limbourg, Bernard; Fédération de Lutte contre les Maladies du bétail de Ciney
Kaeckenbeeck, Albert ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Relations académiques et scientifiques (Méd. vétérinaire)
Mainil, Jacques ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Bactériologie et pathologie des maladies bactériennes
Language :
English
Title :
Bacterial Intestinal Flora Associated with Enterotoxaemia in Belgian Blue Calves
Al-Mashat R.R., Taylor D.J. Bacteria in enteric lesions of cattle. Vet. Rec. 112:1983;5-10.
Al-Mashat R.R., Taylor D.J. Production of enteric lesions in calves by the oral inoculation of pure cultures of Clostridium sordellii. Vet. Rec. 112:1983;141-146.
Arseculeratne S.N., Panabokke R.G., Wijeesundr A. The toxins responsible for the lesions of Clostridium sordellii gas gangrene. J. Med. Microbiol. 2:1969;37-53.
Barroso L.A., Wang S.Z., Phelps C.J., Jonhson J.L., Wilkins T.D. Nucleotide sequence of Clostridium difficile toxin B gene. Nucl. Acid Res. 18:1990;4004.
Cato, E.P., George, W.L., Finegold, S.M., 1986. Genus Clostridium Prazlowski. In: Sneath, P.H.A., Mair, N.S., Sharpe, M.E., Holt, J.G. (Eds.), Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Vol. 2. Williams & Wilkins, pp. 1141-1200.
Cherifi A., Contrepois M., Picard B., Goullet P., De Rycke J., Fairbrother J.M., Bamouin J. Factors and markers of virulence in Escherichia coli from human septicaemia. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 70:1990;279-284.
Cottereau P., Gilbert H., Joubert L., Oudar J., Pierre M. Deux cas d'entérotoxémie bovine à Clostridium sordellii. Rev. Méd. Vét. 113:1962;34-41.
Daube G. Clostridium perfringens et pathologies digestives. Ann. Méd. Vét. 136:1992;5-30.
Daube G., China B., Simon P., Hvala K., Mainil J. Typing of Clostridium perfringens by in vitro amplification of toxin genes. J. Appl. Microbiol. 77:1994;650-655.
Daube G., Simon P., Limbourg B., Manteca C., Mainil J., Kaeckenbeeck A. Hybridization of 2659 Clostridium perfringens isolates with gene probes for seven toxins (α, β, ε, τ, μ, and enterotoxin) and for sialidase. Am. J. Vet. Res. 57:1996;496-501.
De Rycke J., Milon A., Oswald E. Necrotoxic Escherichia coli (NTEC): two emerging categories of human and animal pathogens. Vet. Res. 30:1999;221-233.
Garmory H.S., Chanter N., French N.P., Bueschel D., Songer J.G., Titball R.W. Occurrence of Clostridium perfringens beta2-toxin amongst animals, determined using genotyping and subtyping PCR assays. Epidemiol. Infect. 124:2000;61-67.
Gibert M., Jolivet-Renaud C., Popoff M.R. Beta2 toxin, a novel toxin produced by Clostridium perfingens. Gene. 203:1997;65-73.
Griffiths N.J., Walton J.R., Edwards G.B., Bennett M., China B., Mainil J., Vandevenne S., Hart C.A. The prevalence of Clostridium perfringens in the horse. Rev. Med. Microbiol. 9:1998;S52-S64.
Johnson, S., Gerding, D.N., 1997. Enterotoxemic infections. In: Rood, S., McClane, B.A., Songer, J.G., Titball, R.W. (Eds.), The Clostridia - Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis. Academic Press, New York, pp. 117-140.
Klaasen H.L., Molkenboer M.J., Bakker J., Miserez R., Hani H., Frey J., Popoff M.R., van den Bosch J.F. Detection of beta2 toxin gene of Clostridium perfringens in diarrhoeic piglets in The Netherlands and Switzerland. FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 24:1999;325-332.
Mainil J.G. Shiga/verocytotoxins and Shiga/verotoxigenic Escherichia coli in animals. Vet. Res. 30:1999;235-258.
Mainil J.G., Jacquemin E., Kaeckenbeeck A., Pohl P. Association between the effacing (eae) gene and the Shiga-like toxin-encoding genes in Escherichia coli isolates from cattle. Am. J. Vet. Res. 54:1993;1064-1068.
Manteca C., Daube G. L'entérotoxémie en Belgique. I. Introduction et contexte bibliographique. Ann. Méd. Vét. 138:1994;155-164.
Manteca C., Daube G., Jauniaux T., Limbourg B., Kaeckenbeeck A., Mainil J.G. L'entérotoxémie en Belgique: II. Epizootiologie élémentaire et pathologie descriptive. Ann. Méd. Vét. 144:2000;75-84.
Moncrief, J.S., Lyerly, D.M., Wilkins, T.D., 1997. Molecular biology of Clostridium difficile toxins. In: Rood, S., McClane, B.A., Songer, J.G., Titball, R.W. (Eds.), The Clostridia - Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis. Academic Press, New York, pp. 369-392.
Netherwood T., Wood J.L., Mumford J.A., Chanter N. Molecular analysis of the virulence determinants of Clostridium perfringens associated with foal diarrhoea. Vet. J. 155:1998;289-294.
Niilo L. Enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens type A isolates from intestinal contents of cattle, sheep and chickens. Can. J. Comp. Med. 4:1978;357-363.
Niilo L., Ruth E., Moffat E., Avery R.J. Bovine enterotoxaemia: II. Experimental reproduction of the diseases. Can. Vet. J. 4:1963;288-299.
Oswald E., Pohl P., Jacquemin E., Lintermans P., Van Muylem K., O'Brien A.D., Mainil J. Specific DNA probes to detect Escherichia coli strains producing cytotoxic necrotising factor type 1 and 2. J. Med. Microbiol. 40:1994;428-434.
Popoff M.R. Les entérotoxémies. Rev. Méd. Vét. 1990:1990;479-491.
Sauerborn M., Von Eichel-Streiber M. Nucleotide sequence of Clostridium difficile toxin A. Nucl. Acid Res. 18:1990;1629-1630.
Smith, L.D.S., 1975. The Pathogenic Anaerobic Bacteria, 2nd Edition. Thomas, Springfield, IL, pp. 115-176.
