Clostridium perfringens and C. difficile have been associated with acute and chronic large and small bowel diarrhoea, and acute haemorrhagic diarrhoeal syndrome in dogs. The objective of this study was to investigate by toxin gene profile and PCR-ribotyping the molecular characteristics of 14 C. perfringens and 10 C. difficile isolates from 95 canine faeces (n = 36, diarrhoeic and n = 59, non-d...

Clostridium difficile binary toxin (CDT) is an ADP-ribosyltransferase which is linked to enhanced pathogenesis of C. difficile strains. CDT has dual function: domain a (CDTa) catalyses the ADP-ribosylation of actin (enzymatic component), whereas domain b (CDTb) transports CDTa into the cytosol (transport component). Understanding the molecular mechanism of CDT is necessary to assess its role in...

A microbial strain harboring the eae gene, which is known as the virulence gene of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and most enterohemorrhagic E. coli, was isolated from a patient in a gastroenteritis outbreak that occurred in 22 patients in Akita Prefecture, Japan, in November 2011. The biochemical characteristics of the isolate were more similar to those of a novel Escherichia sp....

The aim of this study was to isolate Clostridium difficile from dogs’ faeces, and to study the frequency of its virulence genes. A total of 151 samples of dogs’ faeces were collected. The isolation of C. difficile was performed by using the bacterial culture methods followed by DNA extraction using boiling method. Multiplex PCR method was performed for identification of tcdA, tcdB, cdtA and cdt...