Prevalence of Clostridium sPP. in diarrhoeic and healthy dogs ...

Ann. Fac. Medic. Vet. di Parma (Vol. XXVII, 2007) pag. 143 - pag. 156C. difficile is a significant enteropathogen in human beings and horses, whereinfection is most commonly associated with disruption of the normal microflora,followed by colonization by toxigenic strains. The role that this microrganism playsin dogs is not well defined, and only a few studies evaluating the presence of toxinsin diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic animals have been done [7].There is no consensus between veterinary diagnostic laboratories regardingdiagnosis of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea in the dog. The apparently highprevalence of ELISA-positive, culture-negative canine specimens obtained withsome assays is questionable, considering that these commercial assays have neverbeen validated in the dog; therefore, such data may represent the consequence offalse-positive results [7].Ideally, the application of PCR assays directly on diarrhoeic fecal specimensand/or on C. difficile isolated strains for the detection of toxin A and B genes combinedwith ELISA tests for the demonstration of toxin production (in vivo and in vitro)should be implemented for diagnosing canine CDAD.AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank Mrs Cinzia Reverberi and Mr. Roberto Lurisi for theirtechnical support.RingraziamentiSi ringrazia la sig.ra Cinzia Reverberi ed il sig. Roberto Lurisi per l’assistenza tecnicaprestata.References1. Batt R.M., Rutgers C. (1997) Bacteria and intestinal disease in dogs. GDBATechnical Review no 11. UK.2. Baums C.G., Shotte U., Amtsberg G., Goethe R. (2004) Diagnostic multiplexPCR for toxin genotyping of Clostridium perfringens isolates. Vet. Microbiol.,100: 11-16.3. Chouicha N., Marks S.L. (2006) Evaluation of five enzyme immunoassayscompared with the cytotoxicity assay for diagnosis of Clostridium difficileassociateddiarrhea in dogs. J. Vet. Diagn. Invest., 18: 182-188.4. Fach P., Popoff M.R. (1997) Detection of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringensin food and fecal samples with a duplex PCR and the slide latex agglutinationtest. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 63: 4232-4236.5. Hackett T., Lappin M.R. (2003) Prevalence of enteric pathogens in dogs ofNorth-Central Colorado. J. Am. Anim. Hosp. Assoc., 39: 52-56.6. Marks S.L. (2003) Bacterial gastroenteritis in dogs and cats. In Proceedingsof 28 th World Congress of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.Bangkok, Thailand, October 24-27, 2003.7. Marks S.L., Kather E.J. (2003) Bacterial-associated diarrhea in the dog: a criticalappraisal. Vet. Clin. Small Anim., 33: 1029-1060.8. Marks S.L., Kather E.J. (2003) Antimicrobial susceptibilities of canine154