Testing strains of Clostridium perfringens type A isolated from diarrhoeic piglets for the presence of the enterotoxin gene.

A diarrhoeic syndrome in piglets has been linked to Clostridium perfringens type A because this organism has been isolated in large numbers from all cases. The strains isolated from these cases and strains isolated from healthy piglets were screened for the enterotoxin gene of C perfringens by DNA-hybridisation. Using two different synthetic DNA-probes, none of the strains isolated from diseased pigs was positive in this reaction, indicating that the enterotoxin of C perfringens is not involved in the syndrome.