Abstract
The most prevailing bacteria in distribution is Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) which is ranked 1st among fatal diseases in small ruminants. This rapidly growing food borne pathogen is present in water, food, soil, air, and humans and animals intestinal tract. In the present study, a cross-sectional study was performed to sort out the prevalence of C. perfringens types estimation in various retail meats and areas of Mardan district, Pakistan. 600 fresh meat samples (equally from cows, sheep and goats) were collected from retail 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 further genotyped through multiplex PCR indicating 93/174 (53.45%) C. perfringens type A, 16/174 (9.19%) type B, 3/174 (1.72%) type C and 62/174 (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. In 174 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. While analyzing prevalence in months and area wise, no significance was observed through chi-square test. It indicates that this pathogen is prevalent in various meat sources in Mardan and could be a threat to public health.