[A cause, sub-estimated in France, of the deadly necrotic enteritis: the enterotoxin of welchia (author's transl)]

Abstract

The symptoms and the lesions observed in the serious enteritis, often very severe, whose agent is W. perfringens A (and sometimes W. agni C) is an enterotoxin known only since the works of Hauschild (1971) and Duncan (1972). This enterotoxin is very different from the other toxinic factors of this anaerobic. This new toxin has been studied by foreign people and very little in France. It was isolated, purified and structured: it is a simple protein of PM +/- 34000, erythematous, inducing severe diarrhea, whose study was realized by the technic of ligatured ileal ansa of the rabbit. Its biosynthesis is related to the sporulation. In the experiment animal, it lyzes the intestinal villosities and denudes the membranes, what makes possible for the other toxins of A type to necrose the intestine. Its diagnostic evaluation is essential for a specific therapy.