CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS STRAINS ASSOCIATED WITH FOOD AND FOOD-BORNE DISEASE

Abstract

A total of 83 strains of Clostridium perfringens[long dash] 30 from England, Europe and Asia associated with food-poisoning outbreaks; 28 from the United States associated with outbreaks or contaminated foods; and 25 from natural or pathological sources[long dash]have been studied to determine their serological relationships, sporulation and heat-resistance of spores and their hemolytic activity on mammalian bloods. A comparison of the results obtained with these three groups of strains reveals that the Eurasian group is characterized by serological typability, poor sporulation with the production of heat-resistant spores and a hemolytic activity limited to the production of partial hemolysis on horse, ox and sheep bloods; whereas the strains from natural and pathological sources in this country are not serologically typable, sporulate well but the spores are not heat-resistant and are hemolytically active producing both partial and complete hemolysis on horse, ox and sheep bloods. The American food-poisoning strains have a wide variety of characteristics. Some strains resemble the Eurasian in their serological typability and the production of heat-resistant spores, but sporulation and hemolytic activity are more like the strains from classical sources. On the basis of these data, it appears unlikely that C. perfringens food-poisoning outbreaks in the United States are restricted to strains meeting the criteria of classification described by British workers; and that the isolation of large numbers of any strain of this organism from an incriminated food must be considered as having a possible bearing on the etiology of the outbreak.