HIGHLIGHTS The blends of essential oils were effective against vegetative cells C. perfringens. antioxidants in the meat product. Essential have a preservative action mortadella.

A new apparatus was developed for measuring changes in E(h), pH, and cell numbers. With this apparatus, the relationships of these parameters were studied at initial E(h) levels of 200 and 40 mv (pH 7.0), by using Clostridium perfringens and Pseudomonas fluorescens. One of the strains of C. perfringens grew more luxuriantly at the higher E(h), in the presence of small quantities of oxygen, than...

Oligonucleotide probes designed on the basis of the N-terminal sequence of Clostridium perfringens beta-toxin were used to isolate the encoding gene (cpb). The nucleotide sequence of cpb was determined, and on the basis of DNA hybridization experiments it was shown that the gene is found only in type B and C strains of C. perfringens. The deduced amino acid sequence of the beta-toxin revealed h...

The Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium Clostridium perfringens is widely distributed in nature, especially in soil and the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals. C. perfringens causes gas gangrene and food poisoning, and it produces extracellular enzymes and toxins that are thought to act synergistically and contribute to its pathogenesis. A complicated regulatory network of toxin genes ...

The aim of this study was to determine the presence of genes coding for alpha (cpalpha), beta (cpbeta), epsilon (epsilontx), iota (iotaA), enterotoxin (cpepsilon) and beta2 (cpbeta2) toxins in Clostridium perfringens isolates from broiler chickens and parent broiler breeder hens, using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. The prevalence of C. perfringens in the intestinal segments a...

The protease CspB and the cortex-lytic enzyme SleC are essential for peptoglycan cortex hydrolysis during germination of spores of the Clostridium perfringens food poisoning isolate SM101. In this study, Western blot analyses were used to demonstrate that CspB and SleC are present exclusively in the C. perfringens SM101 spore coat layer fraction and absent in the lysate from decoated spores and...

Clostridium perfringens causes enteric diseases in animals and humans. In poultry, avian-specific C. perfringens strains cause necrotic enteritis, an economically significant poultry disease that costs the global industry over $2 billion annually in losses and control measures. With removal of antibiotic growth promoters in some countries this disease appears to be on the rise. In experimental ...

The L-forms of Clostridium perfringens were first reported by Dienes (1950). He described this form as minute, soft, pleomorphic colonies which developed when C. perfringens were grown on penicillin-treated horse serum agar plates. The reversion of L-colonies to bacterial forms has not been reported for C. perfringens. They have been observed in strains of Proteus (Dienes, 1949), Salmonellae (W...

A procedure is described for identifying and enumerating Clostridium perfringens in foods by means of a simplified agar plating method, followed by confirmation of black colonies in tubes of motility-nitrate medium and sporulation broth. The test is routinely completed within 48 hr. Under experimental conditions, the procedure has been used to quantitatively recover various levels of C. perfrin...

AIMS To determine the incidence of sporadic and apparently non-food related diarrhoea associated with Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. METHODS Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reversed phase latex agglutination (RPLA) were used to detect C perfringens enterotoxin in faecal specimens from 818 sporadic cases of diarrhoea. RESULTS C perfringens enterotoxin was identified as a ...