N ecrotizing enterocolitis is a serious disease of sudden onset in foals associated with a high death rate, despite therapeutic intervention. Clinical manifestations of enterocolitis in foals vary from being found dead to spectrum clinical manifestations. In this study, 50 fecal samples collected from foals aged 1-4 months and suspected clinically to be suffered from enterocolitis with main symptoms of profuse diarrhea, colic and abdominal pain. Rapid diagnosis was essential for controlling the

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... disease instead of animal inoculation which is morally forbidden. Two rapid methods were used for diagnosis; ELISA and PCR tests. Out of 50 samples, 22 Clostridium perfringens isolates were detected (44%) and typed according to their major toxins and the presence of toxin genes using ELISA and PCR respectively. By PCR, 18 isolates were found to harbor cpa gene only (type A) and 4 isolates harbored cpa and cpb gene (type C), however, ELISA revealed that only 12 isolates have toxigenic activities for alpha toxin (type A), 6 isolates were non-toxigenic and 4 isolates gave alpha and beta toxins (type C) meaning that 6 isolates were not expressed by conventional PCR .