author(s)
Parvaiz S Dar, Shakil A Wani, Aasim H Wani, I Hussain, Rafia Maqbool, Muhammad Y Ganaie, Zahid A Kashoo and S Qureshi

abstract
Clostridium perfringens, a Gram positive spore forming anaerobic bacteria is associated with necrotic enteritis, necrotic dermatitis, cholangiohepatitis in poultry causing huge economic losses to the poultry Industry. Moreover, C. perfringens has been associated with food poisoning in humans. A study was conducted (July 2015 to July 2016) to isolate and characterize C. perfringens from apparently healthy and clinically affected poultry of Govt. poultry farms of Hariparbat, Mattan and Instructional Poultry Farm, Shuhama. Samples were also taken from private poultry farms of district Ganderbal, Srinagar and Budgam and Division of Veterinary Pathology, FVSc & AH, Shuhama that were received for post-mortem examination. A total of 224 samples (chicken-184, turkey-29 and duck-11) comprising of feacal material and intestinal contents were collected. A total of 63 (28.12%) isolates (chicken-51, turkey-9 and duck-3) of C. perfringens were obtained. Highest (33.63%) occurrence of C. perfringens was observed in 2-6 weeks old broilers than the older layer birds (18.91%). All the isolates were found to be C. perfringens type A by a multiplex PCR assay for cpa, cpb, cpb2, etx, cpi, and cpe genes. In addition to cpa gene, 9 (17.64%) isolates from chicken also carried cpb2 gene. None of the isolates carried cpe gene. It is thus concluded that Clostridium perfringens is prevalent in poultry in Kashmir. Thus, could be associated with causation of disease in them. The presence of Clostridium perfringens in healthy poultry birds draws attention towards their presence as reservoir of clostridial infection, which may lead to colossal lossed to the poultry industry.