Bulgarian Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 2021, 24, No 4, 497507 ISSN 1311-1477; DOI: 10.15547/bjvm.2019-0131 Original article DEVELOPMENT OF IMMUNOCHROMATOGRAPHIC LATERAL FLOW TEST FOR RAPID DETECTION OF CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS Α, Β AND Ε TOXINS IN CLINICAL SAMPLES R. SOLIMAN 1 , M. M. MAGDY 2 , A. SAMIR 1 , Y. A. ABDALLA 3 & R. H. SAYED 4 1 Microbiology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt; 2 Advanced Maadi Veterinary Center, Egypt; 3 Anaerobic Vaccine Department, Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute (VSVRI), Abbasia, Cairo, Egypt; 4 Central Labora- tory for Evaluation of Veterinary Biologics (CLEVB, ARC), Abbasia, Cairo, Egypt Summary Soliman, R., M. M. Magdy, A. Samir, Y. A. Abdalla & R. H. Sayed, 2021. Development of immunochromatographic lateral flow test for rapid detection of Clostridium perfringens α, β and ε toxins in clinical samples. Bulg. J. Vet. Med., 24, No 4, 497507. In the present work a lateral flow immunochromatographic test (LFT) for rapid detection of Clostri- dium perfringens toxins types, alpha (α), beta (β) and epsilon (ε) in clinical samples was developed. C. perfringens toxins were prepared, purified and inactivated with 0.2% formalin. Polyclonal antibodies specific to C. perfringens toxins types α, β and ε toxoids were prepared in rabbits and guinea pigs. The toxoid specific polyclonal antibodies prepared in rabbits were labelled with gold chloride nanoparti- cles. The prepared toxin specific rabbit and guinea pigs antibodies and goat anti-rabbit antibodies were utilised in development of a lateral flow immunochromatographic test and the latter  evaluated for detection of C. perfringens α, β and ε toxins in clinical samples. The sensitivity and specificity and accuracy of the developed LFT were determined by comparison with a commercially available ELISA used for detection of these toxins. The prepared LFT was capable to detect C. perfringens α, β and ε toxins in quantities of 2 μg/ml, 250 ng/ml and 60 ng/ml, respectively. One hundred poultry suspected faecal samples was examined both with the prepared LFT and commercial ELISA to test the validity of developed LFT. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the LFT for detection of C. perfringens toxins were 81%, 95.2% and 90%, respectively, for α toxin, 76.6%, 98.5% and 72%, respectively, for β toxin and 66.6%, 98.8% and 95%, respectively, for ε toxin. Key words: C. perfringens α, β and ε toxins, lateral flow test (LFT) INTRODUCTION Clostridium perfringens is a Gram- positive anaerobic spore-forming bacte- rium that causes life-threatening diseases such as gas gangrene and mild enteroto- xaemia in humans and animals, although it colonises humans and animals as a part of normal intestinal flora (Havelaar et al., 2015). Clostridium perfringens, which is considered as one of the largest toxin pro- ducing bacteria, is classified into five