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Diagnosis | Clostridium perfringens enteropathy

Lab Animal volume 39, pages 206–207 (2010)Cite this article

The clinical history in our case is similar to other outbreaks in mouse colonies of a syndrome associated with bloating, failure of lactation and unexpected death in mice3,4,5,6. Only one report5 describes enterocolitis in which C. perfringens type A was isolated. In the other three reports3,4,6, either bacterial culture was not done or enteropathogenic microorganisms were not found. In two of these reports3,6, however, it was suggested that clostridial enterotoxin might have a role.

It was notable that an overwhelming proportion of the affected females in this case were experiencing their first lactation and had 14-d-old pups. Most of the affected dams were raising large litters (average of 7.5 pups), which demands a high level of milk production. To fulfill this requirement, a high nutritional uptake would be necessary. The absence of abdominal fat in the mice indicates that they were in an undernourished state and suggests that they were overeating in an attempt to obtain sufficient calories for milk production. We hypothesized that the high-carbohydrate diet could create an intestinal environment conducive to the overgrowth of toxigenic clostridial organisms.

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Figure 4: A cross-section of the jejunum from a dead lactating female C57BL/6J mouse with 14-d-old pups.
Figure 5: Necrotic debris in the small intestine of a dead lactating female C57BL/6J mouse.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dorthe Clausen, Lone Dahl Thomsen and Karina Vestergaard Nielsen for their excellent technical assistance.

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Diagnosis | Clostridium perfringens enteropathy. Lab Anim 39, 206–207 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0710-206

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