Jensen W I
J Wildl Dis. 1981 Apr;17(2):171-6. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-17.2.171.
Fecal extracts and blood sera from 113 ducks showing clinical signs of botulism were examined for Clostridium botulinum type C toxin by means of the mouse toxicity test to evaluate coproexamination as a diagnostic procedure, as compared with demonstration of toxin in serum. When death of test mice unprotected with type specific antitoxin (while protected controls survived) was the criterion, 78.8% of the sera and 5.3% of the fecal extracts were positive. When characteristic signs of intoxication in the unprotected mice was included as evidence of toxin in the specimens, these percentages increased to 86.7 and 6.2, respectively. Fecal specimens were collected hourly for the first 6 h after peroral dosing of eight mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) with 1.0 LD50 of type C toxin and at 24, 48, and 72 h from birds surviving that long. From 2 to 4 toxin-positive specimens were passed by all eight ducks during the first 6 h, five specimens were positive at 24 h, and three were positive at 48 h. Only three specimens were collected at 72 h, all of which were negative. These findings suggest that attempts to detect toxin in the feces of wild ducks might have been more successful had the birds been captured earlier in the course of the disease.
对113只出现肉毒中毒临床症状的鸭子的粪便提取物和血清进行检测，通过小鼠毒性试验检测C型肉毒梭菌毒素，以评估粪便检查作为一种诊断方法的效果，并与血清中毒素的检测结果进行比较。以未用型特异性抗毒素保护的试验小鼠死亡（而用抗毒素保护的对照小鼠存活）为标准，78.8%的血清和5.3%的粪便提取物呈阳性。当将未保护小鼠的中毒特征性体征作为样本中存在毒素的证据时，这些百分比分别增至86.7%和6.2%。给8只绿头鸭（Anas platyrhynchos）经口投喂1.0 LD50的C型毒素后，在最初6小时内每小时收集粪便样本，对存活较长时间的鸭子在24、48和72小时收集样本。在最初6小时内，所有8只鸭子排出了2至4份毒素阳性样本，24小时时有5份样本呈阳性，48小时时有3份样本呈阳性。72小时时仅收集到3份样本，均为阴性。这些发现表明，如果在疾病过程中更早地捕获野鸭，检测其粪便中毒素的尝试可能会更成功。
