Author/Authors :
Fathy, Mohamed Department of Animal and Poultry Health - Desert Research Centre, Matariya, Cairo, Egypt , Abdel-Moein, Khaled A. Derrtment of Zoonoses - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Cairo University, Giza, Egypt , Osman, Wafaa A. Department of Animal and Poultry Health - Desert Research Centre, Matariya, Cairo, Egypt , Erfan, Ahmed M. National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production - Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt , Prince, Abdelbary Department of Biochemistry - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Cairo University, Giza, Egypt , Hafez, Amani A. Department of Animal and Poultry Health - Desert Research Centre, Matariya, Cairo, Egypt , Eldin Mahmoud, Hossam Department of Microbiology -Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Cairo University, Giza, Egypt , Mosallam, Tarek E. Department of Udder Health and Neonates disease - Animal Reproduction Research Institute, Haram, Giza, Egypt , Samir, Ahmed Department of Microbiology -Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Abstract :
Clostridium difficile is a well-known enteric pathogen causing antibiotic-associated diarrhea and
pseudomembranous colitis among humans. Lately, C. difficile has emerged to cause enteric problems in food producing
animals, horses and household pets particularly young ones. This study was conducted to investigate the performance
of different laboratory diagnostic methods for Clostridium difficile in veterinary field. For this purpose, ninety fecal
samples collected from diarrheic sheep, goats and chickens, were examined for the detection of C. difficile using three
laboratory methods: direct Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on DNA extracted from fecal samples, conventional
culture followed by molecular confirmation of isolates and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) ELISA on feces. The
detection rates of C. difficile were 45.6%, 16.7% and 8.9% by direct PCR, conventional culture followed by molecular
confirmation of isolates and GDH-ELISA, respectively. Direct PCR yielded the highest detection rate, however, false
negative results were recorded in 3 samples being positive by culture method, whereas, all GDH-ELISA positive
samples were also positive by the other techniques. In conclusion, Direct PCR on DNA extracted from fecal samples
of animals showed the highest detection rate nevertheless false negative results cannot be ruled out.
