Epidemiological studies on Clostridium perfringens food poisoning in retail foods

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens is an important anaerobic pathogen causing food-borne gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in humans and animals. Meat and meat products are the most common vehicles of C. perfringens type A food poisoning. Contamination of meat by the intestinal contents of slaughtered animals may serve as an important source of this pathogen to the food supply. One hundred and fifty-five non-outbreak food samples were obtained from meat and retail food and examined for the presence of C. perfringens. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay to determine the toxin genotype of C. perfringens isolates, and extraction and purification of C. perfringens enterotoxin from enterotoxin gene (cpe)-positive isolates were carried out. The homogeneity of the purified enterotoxin was demonstrated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In addition, stool samples were collected from 150 persons who had been in contact with animals, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were carried out for the qualitative determination of C. perfringens enterotoxin in the stool samples. The results demonstrated that approximately 2.6% of the tested meat and retail meat samples were contaminated with cpe-positive C. perfringens. The recommended laboratory criteria used to implicate C. perfringens in food-borne disease should involve the detection of C. perfringens enterotoxin production or the presence of the cpe gene in foods or faeces, or in the suspected C. perfringens isolates. In the present study some isolates such as tuna contained the enterotoxin gene although they had a low count of C. perfringens.

Molecular Characterization of Clostridium perfringens Strains Isolated in Italy

“…Surprisingly, our study showed that none of the 5 C. perfringens deriving from contaminated food presented the cpe gene in contrast to that reported in the literature [ 7 , 8 ]. Rosignoli et al [ 39 , 40 ] reported a unique sample food typed A but associated with the cons variant, whereas all our C. perfringens isolates were associated with the aty allelic variant.…”

“…The new toxinotype F represents the formerly known CPE-positive strains of C. perfringens type A and encodes the CPA and CPE toxins upon sporulation. In this case, CPE is a typing toxin because its association with the cpa toxin genes has been demonstrated to be responsible for enterotoxigenic infections in humans [ 7 , 8 ] and animals [ 9 ]. The new type G produces the CPA toxin and the NetB toxin and is responsible for necrotic enteritis in poultry [ 10 ].…”

The Circulation of Type F Clostridium perfringens among Humans, Sewage, and Ruditapes philippinarum (Asari Clams)

“…This means that type F C. perfringens is more often detected from infection sources such as foods and/or environments. The isolation rate of type F C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores from investigated foods, principally meat products (0–5%) [ 11 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 46 , 47 , 48 ], was lower than that of Salmonella (8–10%), EHEC (16.6%), and Campylobacter (21–27%) from foods [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. However, the actual infection risks of type F C. perfringens infection from foods would be higher since most of these contaminated foods are heated well before eating them, so bacteria in foods would be killed excluding type F C. perfringens spores, which are heat resistant.…”

Influence of Acid Adaptation on the Probability of Germination of Clostridium sporogenes Spores Against pH, NaCl and Time

“…Therefore, to avoid the production of neurotoxin, it is essential to prevent its germination. The toxin types are classified as A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Human botulism has been mainly described with the strains of C. botulinum that produce toxin types A, B and E. Botulism outbreaks caused by different home-prepared or preserved foods have been widely reported in the literature, most of them due to improperly pasteurized or packed home-canned vegetables [3,4]; home-made oil condiments and sauces [5][6][7]; fishery products [8,9]; cheese [10,11]; or meat products [12,13]. Although it is not usual, several outbreaks in table olives have also been reported to be mainly associated with black table olives [14].…”