Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Clostridium tetani and Clostridium botulinum, respectively, produce botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) and tetanus neurotoxin
(TeTx), which is responsible for severe disease, botulism and tetanus. Several cattle botulism and tetanus occurred
sporadically in Korea recently. Since these diseases could become a potential hazard to livestock industries, we investigated the
distribution of C. tetani and C. botulinum in various samples of cattle farms in Korea. A total of 819 samples including cattle
feces, stomach contents, hay and silages, soils, water trough were collected during 2012 to 2014, and incubated with anaerobic
condition. The enrichment cultures were subjected to multiplex PCR developed in our laboratory for screening the presence
of C. tetani and C. botulinum type B, C and D, and mouse neutralization test was also used for determination of the toxin type.
Thirty six C. tetani were isolated from soils, 36 from feces, 24 from gastric contents, 7 from forage, and 11 from other sources.
According to multiplex PCR, toxigenic strains were 99 (86%) of C. tetani isolates and non-toxigenic ones 15 (14%) of the
isolates were non-toxigenic. Eight C. botulinum type B strains were isolated from forage and water trough, 1 C/D mosaic type
from stomach contents and 18 type D from feces, stomach contents, water trough and forage. These studies demonstrated that
C. tetani and C. botulinum were prevalent in cattle farms in Korea.

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