Abstract

Clostridium difficile and clostridium perfringens play a significant role in diarrheic disease in equine.
This study was designed to determine the role of clostridium difficile and clostridium perfringens in equine diarrhea, 380 equine was examined clicically, where 65 were suffering from diarrhea. Fecal samples were collected from diarrheic animals, and 10 samples from apparently healthy animals.
Clostridium difficile and clostridium perfringens were isolated from 19 and 11 samples respectively, while the two bacteria were isolated from 5 samples simultaneously. Moreover 4 samples from apparently healthy animals had clostridium difficile infection, indicating the high prevelance of theses organisms in equine.
Toxins of clostridium difficile wasn’t detected in diarrheic samples or culture of clostridium difficile isolates by ELISA and PCR-technique, while α and β2 toxins of clostridium perfringens were detected in culture of clostridium.

Key words: clostridium difficile, clostridium perfringens, toxins production, isolation , PCR, ELISA