author(s)
Syed Akram Hussain, MM Willayat, ZH Munshi, Mudasir A Rather and Najimaana Wani

abstract
The present research was undertaken to study the toxigenic activities of crude enterotoxin of C. perfringens type A isolates obtained from raw meat, raw chicken and meat products were studied in blood agar and experimental animal model during 2012-2013. All the 44 (74.58%) C. perfringens type A strains produced clear double zone of β-haemolysis on 5% sheep blood agar. In animal model, the field isolates produced maximum vascular permeability reaction within 12 hr of intra-dermal injection of C. perfringens crude enterotoxin (CPCE) which subsided completely after 48 hrs. The quantitative response of the ileal loops (fluid volume/loop length ratio) indicated the entero-toxigenic activity of CPCE from field isolates as well as standard ATCC-13124 strain of C. perfringens type A. The study confirms the toxigenic activities of C. perfringens type A in animal model in-vivo and concluded that vascular permeability reaction helps in demonstrating the activities of C. perfringens type A enterotoxin over ligated ileal loop techniques without sacrificing the animals.