[Type D and A Clostridium botulinum in necropsy samples from bovines with "mal de Aguapey"]

Bacteriological studies were carried out on several necropsy samples from five animals whose deaths had been attributed to bovine botulism. This disease, regionally called Mal de Aguapey, enzootically affects animals from a wide area of the north-east of Argentina (Province of Corrientes) with a bovine population estimated at near to 2,500,000. Either C. botulinum type D, its toxin or both were identified in all animal samples, alternatively in contents of rumen, jejunum, ileum, caecum and in samples of spleen, liver and kidney (Table 1). C. botulinum type A was isolated respectively from the liver and the kidney of two animals. Cultures of 100 soil samples taken in the enzootic area were positive only for C. botulinum type A (3%). These results enlarge and confirm previous findings and lend support to the botulinic etiology of the Mal de Aguapey.