Isolation of Clostridium species from herbage

A total of fourteen herbage samples were collected from paddocks on six farms from two States of Nigeria. These samples yielded twenty two clostridial isolates out of which eleven were identified as Clostridium perfringens and five as Clostridium bifermentans. The other species identified were less frequently isolated. No farm yielded all the species isolated. The farm with the highest distribution of the species of Clostridium was Government Farm, Butura, Plateau State, with a frequency distribution of 50% of the species isolated. In each of two other farms the distribution was 37.5%; and in each of the remaining farms it was less than 30% in frequency. The effect of ubiquitous clostridial infections on ruminants is discussed.