Clostridium perfringens food poisoning: An update on toxins, occurrence, diseases and detection techniques

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobe, gram positive, sporogenic, non-motile and encapsulated bacillus. The organism is ubiquitous nature i.e. presence in soil, dust and the gastrointestinal tracts of animals and man, gives ample opportunity to contaminate foods. Clostridium perfringens can exist as a heat-resistant spore, so it may survive cooking and grow to large numbers if the cooked food is held between 4 0C and 60 0C for an extensive time period. The organism produces 17 different types of extracellular toxins, which produces different forms of enterotoxaemia in domestic and wild animals in several corners of world. Besides food poisoning, Clostridium perfringens also gives rise to sporadic diarrhoea, antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, gas gangrene and necrotic enteritis in humans. These diseases have high economic impact due loss of productivity and death of animals. Today, various methods have been developed viz. cultural method, bioassay, immunological assay and molecular techniques to detect, identify and characterize the organism. The cultural isolation is believed to be the most authentic method for the qualitative and quantitative detection and estimation of Clostridium perfringens. Since no single media alone is found to be the best suitable to enumerate the true presence of different strains of Clostridium perfringens. Therefore, multimedia study is required to show the true status of Clostridium perfringens in foods and also to compare the efficacy of various media in the detection and identification. Among the current technique, immunoassay and molecular methods are extensively used in the food microbiology for diagnostic purpose and epidemiological study of toxigenic strains of the pathogen. These techniques are powerful, specific and sensitive.