Author(s): Mahaveer Suresha, Priyanka Karela, K Gururaj and Anju Chahar

Abstract: Enterotoxaemia is a well-known disease in sheep caused by gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic bacteria called Clostridium perfringens. For this study, we screened 100 sheep of different age groups to determine the prevalence of enterotoxaemia. Out of these, 68 sheep with a history of diarrhoea and distended intestine with dark fluid were screened for the prevalence of epsilon toxins in enterotoxaemia through intestinal content samples. Clinical samples for this study were collected from veterinary hospitals, local abattoirs and farms in Bikaner City. The prevalence of enterotoxaemia in sheep was found to be 22.05% by using the sandwich ELISA test for direct detection of epsilon toxins. Based on the results, we concluded that adopting an all-year-round surveillance system is necessary to enable early detection of the disease among sheep. Some livestock owners keep different animal species in one flock/herd, which increases the inter-species transmission of the disease.

DOI: 10.33545/26174693.2024.v8.i1Sl.473