Work

Prevalence of Clostridium perfringens Encoding the netF Toxin Gene in Dogs with Acute and Chronic Gastrointestinal Diseases

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Several recent studies have reported a significantly greater prevalence of Clostridium perfringens encoding the novel pore-forming netF toxin gene in dogs with acute hemorrhagic diarrhea syndrome. However, the presence of netF in other canine diarrheal diseases remains poorly characterized. This retrospective, cross-sectional study aimed to describe the prevalence and abundance of netF-positive C. perfringens in fecal samples from 352 dogs with acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases. Dogs were divided into five groups: acute hemorrhagic diarrhea syndrome (AHDS), acute diarrhea (AD), chronic enteropathy (CE), exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), and healthy controls (HCs). The abundances of C. perfringens 16S rRNA, the C. perfringens enterotoxin gene and the C. perfringens netF gene in fecal samples were analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In total, 7 of 15 (46.7%) dogs with AHDS, 10 of 75 (13.3%) dogs with AD, 2 of 120 (1.7%) dogs with CE, 1 of 12 (8.3%) dogs with EPI, and 1 of 130 (0.8%) HC dogs tested positive for netF. This study provides further evidence that NetF may be a significant contributor to the etiology of AHDS and potentially to a subset of acute nonhemorrhagic diarrhea cases, while it was only rarely detected in chronic gastrointestinal disease phenotypes.

Source: Pets

DOI: 10.3390/pets2010009

Authors: Victoria Wessely, Jan S. Suchodolski, João P. Cavasin, Mara Holz, Kathrin Busch-Hahn, Stefan Unterer

Institutions: University of Zurich, Texas A&M University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Language: English

Topic: Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,207