Detection of Enterotoxin in Faeces and Anti‐enterotoxin in Serum after Clostridium perfringens Food‐poisoning

Abstract

Two outbreaks of Clostridium perfringens food‐poisoning involving the same person were investigated. In the first, typical symptoms with diarrhoea and abdominal pain were observed. In the second, there were no classical signs of food‐poisoning; the victim felt some flatulence and the faeces had a pasty appearance and an unpleasant smell. Counterimmunoelectrophoresis and the reversed passive haemagglutination test were rapid and reliable assay methods for enterotoxin in faeces. In the first outbreak, 13–16 μg enterotoxin/g faeces were detected, and 3–4 μg/g in the second. The detection of enterotoxin in faeces indicates the potential use of enterotoxin tests on diarrhoeal samples for diagnosing C. perfringens food‐poisoning. No enterotoxin was detected in serum during the acute stage of the illness, but the antibody titre showed a considerable rise in the first two months after the food‐poisoning outbreak.

Clostridium perfringens type A enterotoxin: a rapid method for preparation of a specific antiserum using an enterotoxin purified by the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique

“…Another advantage is the fact that the polyacrylamide gel had excellent immunogenic properties; thus a serum with a satisfactory titer may be obtained using small quantities of enterotoxin. A specific anti-enterotoxin serum thus prepared is convenient for enterotoxin detection and quantitation by CIEP in supernatant fluid of sporulating cultures, various food extracts [15] and fecal samples [28,29]. This serum may also be used in biological activity neutralization techniques: mouse lethality neutralization, inhibition of plating efficiency [11] and neutralization of cytotoxicity of Vero cells [10]; the last two are the most sensitive methods.…”

Enterotoxin Production by Lecithinase‐positive and Lecithinase‐negative Clostridium perfringens Isolated from Food Poisoning Outbreaks and other sources

“…Counterimmunoelectrophoresis was used to screen the DS-culture supernatant fluid for enterotoxin and positive samples were quantitated by rocketimmunoelectrophoresis as described by Skjelkvble & Uemura (1977). These methods have a sensitivity of approximately 1 pg enterotoxin/ml.…”

Rapid detection of Clostridium perfringens type A enterotoxin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

“…This is at least partially due to the inconvenience of these assays for large-scale application. Additionally, some assays are unsatisfactory for investigations of food-borne disease, owing to interference by fecal material (13,17).…”