The prevalence of Clostridium perfringens in retail meat of Mardan, Pakistan

Abstract

The most prevailing bacteria in distribution is Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) which is ranked 1st among fatal diseasesin small ruminants. This rapidly growing food borne pathogen is present in water, food, soil, air, and humans and animals intestinaltract. In the present study, a cross-sectional study was performed to sort out the prevalence of C. perfringens types estimation in variousretail meats and areas of Mardan district, Pakistan. 600 fresh meat samples (equally from cows, sheep and goats) were collected fromretail shops. C. perfringens was diagnosed in various types of meat however highest prevalence was found in goats 174/200 (87%)followed by sheep 103/200 (51.5%) while the least prevalence was in cow meat 89/200 (44.5%). All obtained isolates were furthergenotyped through multiplex PCR indicating 93/174 (53.45%) C. perfringens type A, 16/174 (9.19%) type B, 3/174 (1.72%) type C and62/174 (35.63%) type D in goat isolates. 53/103 (51.46%) C. perfringens type A, 11/103 (10.68%) type B, 3/103 (2.91%) type C and 36/103(34.95%) type D in sheep isolates. 73/89 (82.02%) C. perfringens type A, 9/89 (10.11%) type D and 7/89 (7.86%) type E in cow isolates.Out of 89 cow meat isolates 4 (4.49%) carried cpe gene, 16 (17.98%) contained cpb2 gene and 1 (1.12%) carried both cpe and cpb2 genes.In 103 sheep meat isolates, 2 (1.94%) carried cpe gene, 8 (7.77%) carried cpb2 gene and 3 (2.91%) carried both cpe and cpb2 genes. In174 goat’s meat isolates, 3 (1.72%) carried cpe gene, 18 (10.34%) carried cpb2 gene while (1.72%) carried both cpe and cpb2 genes. Whileanalyzing prevalence in months and area wise, no significance was observed through chi-square test. It indicates that this pathogen isprevalent in various meat sources in Mardan and could be a threat to public health.