Background and Aim: Enterotoxemia caused by Clostridium perfringens toxinotypes is an often fatal disease of sheep of all ages, with a substantial economic loss to the sheep industry. This study was conducted to isolate C. perfringens from suspected cases of enterotoxemia in sheep in the central part of the Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia, and to determine the prevalent toxinotype by detecting alpha (cpA), beta (cpB), and epsilon (etX) toxin genes, which might help control this disease locally.

Materials and Methods: A total of 93 rectal swabs and intestinal content samples were collected from diseased and animals suspected of having died of enterotoxemia in early 2020. Samples were subjected to bacteriological examination, biochemical analysis of isolates by VITEK 2, and molecular toxinotyping of isolates by LightCycler^® real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Results: Our results revealed that only 14 isolates were confirmed by VITEK 2 as being C. perfringens, with excellent identification (probability of 95% and 97%). According to the toxinotyping of isolates by RT-PCR, all 14 isolates possessed both the cpA and etX toxin genes, while the cpB toxin gene was not detected in any of the isolates.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that C. perfringens type D was the only toxinotype found in the central part of the Qassim Region in 2020; moreover, according to the culture method, only 15% (14/93) of the suspected cases of enterotoxemia were confirmed to be caused by C. perfringens infection, which highlighted the importance of clinical and laboratory differential diagnosis of enterotoxemia in sheep.

Keywords: Clostridium perfringens toxinotypes, enterotoxaemia, Qassim Region, real-time polymerase chain reaction, sheep, VITEK 2.