Isolation, molecular characterization and prevalence of Clostridium perfringens in sheep and goats of Kashmir Himalayas, India

Aim: The study was conducted to report the occurrence of the Clostridium perfringens in sheep and goats of the Kashmir valley for the 1st time and to characterize them molecularly with respect to toxin genes to determine the prevalence of the various toxinotypes. Materials and Methods: A total of 177 samples (152 from sheep and 25 from goats) collected from healthy, diarrheic animals, and morbid material of animals suspected to have died of enterotoxaemia were screened for C. perfringens toxinotypes. The presumptive positive isolates were confirmed using 16S rRNA gene-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All the confirmed isolates were screened for six toxin genes, namely; cpa, cpb, etx, cpi, cpb2, and cpe using a multiplex PCR. Results: The PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene revealed that out of 177 samples collected, 125 (70.62%) were found positive for C. perfringens, of which 110 (72.36%) were from sheep and 15 (60%) were from goats. The highest prevalence of C. perfringens toxinotype D was observed in lambs (56.16%) and kids (46.16%) followed by 3.84% in adult sheep while it was absent in samples obtained from adult goats. The multiplex PCR revealed that 67 (60.90%) isolates from sheep and 8 (53.33%) isolates from goats belonged to toxinotype A, while 43 (39.09%) isolates from sheep and 7 (46.66%) isolates from goats were detected as toxinotype D. None of the isolates was found to be toxinotype B, C, or E. All the C. perfringens toxinotype A isolates from sheep were negative for both cpb2 and cpe genes, however, 27.90% toxinotype D isolates from sheep carried cpb2 gene, and 6.97% possessed cpe gene. In contrast, 12.50% C. perfringens toxinotype A isolates from goats harbored cpb2 and cpe genes while 14.28% isolates belonging to toxinotype D carried cpb2 and cpe genes, respectively. Conclusion: The high prevalence of C. perfringens was observed, even in day-old lambs. The toxinotypes A and D are prevalent in both sheep and goats. The severity of disease and mortality may be associated with the presence of minor toxins in both the detected toxinotypes

Abiotic Stress Tolerance-Progress and Pathways of Sustainable Rice Production

Rice is globally a major food crop and its production has progressively been affected by various types of abiotic stresses especially drought, flooding, salinity, heat and cold in most of the cultivable rice ecosystems. The incidence, intensity and duration of these stresses are anticipated to aggravate due to climate change consequences, demanding resilient yields in these situations to be essential. Present paper deals with reviewing various types of abiotic stresses and their mitigation strategies for enhancing and stabilizing rice production in stress prone areas. Review of available literature pertaining to the study area has been used as research methodology for this paper. The available literature suggests that stress-tolerant varieties can serve as the most viable strategy to contribute in coping with the problem of abiotic stresses. Although, good progress has been made in the development of stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) and incessant efforts are being made to spread these varieties in target areas, adoption by farmers is yet to meet expectations. Advantage, affordability, awareness and availability are the main factors responsible for adopting of any technology. The adoption of stress-tolerant varieties has not reached its potential, predominantly due to the lack of awareness and non-availability of seeds amongst farmers. Strategic and intentional collaborations should be ensured for scaling the sustainable delivery and diffusion of STRVs. A promotional roadmap that ensures the linkages between private and public seed sectors remains the key factor for its successful adoption. Similarly, strengthening of formal, informal and semi-formal seed systems is crucial to accelerate the dissemination of these varieties. There is an imperative need to create strategic plans for the development of varieties possessing multiple stress tolerance. Significant investments for sustainability of rice production in stress prone areas form the essential component of long-term agricultural development. The sooner these investments and strategies are accomplished, the greater the gains are expected