This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Birkhead, G Articles by McClane, B A Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Birkhead, G Articles by McClane, B A

Characterization of an outbreak of Clostridium perfringens food poisoning by quantitative fecal culture and fecal enterotoxin measurement.

Vermont Department of Health, Burlington 05402.

ABSTRACT

Published criteria for implicating Clostridium perfringens as the cause of food-poisoning outbreaks include finding a median fecal C. perfringens spore count of greater than 10(6)/g among specimens from ill persons. We investigated a food-poisoning outbreak with the epidemiologic characteristics of C. perfringens-related disease in a nursing home in which the median fecal spore count for ill patients (2.5 X 10(7)/g) was similar to that for well patients (4.0 X 10(6)/g), making the etiology of the outbreak uncertain. All ill and well patients tested had eaten turkey, the implicated food item. C. perfringens enterotoxin was detected by reverse passive latex agglutination in fecal specimens from six of six ill and none of four well patients who had eaten turkey (P = 0.005), suggesting that this organism had caused the outbreak. This investigation suggests that detection of fecal C. perfringens enterotoxin is a specific way to identify this organism as the causative agent in food-poisoning outbreaks.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fernandez Miyakawa, M. E., Pistone Creydt, V., Uzal, F. A., McClane, B. A., Ibarra, C. (2005). Clostridium perfringens Enterotoxin Damages the Human Intestine In Vitro. Infect. Immun. 73: 8407-8410 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Chakrabarti, G., Zhou, X., McClane, B. A. (2003). Death Pathways Activated in CaCo-2 Cells by Clostridium perfringens Enterotoxin. Infect. Immun. 71: 4260-4270 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• ASHA, N.J., WILCOX, M.H. (2002). Laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium perfringens antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. J Med Microbiol 51: 891-894 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lukinmaa, S., Takkunen, E., Siitonen, A. (2002). Molecular Epidemiology of Clostridium perfringens Related to Food-Borne Outbreaks of Disease in Finland from 1984 to 1999. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68: 3744-3749 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Modi, N, Wilcox, M H (2001). Evidence for antibiotic induced Clostridium perfringens diarrhoea. J. Clin. Pathol. 54: 748-751 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Collie, R., McClane, B. (1998). Evidence that the enterotoxin gene can be episomal in Clostridium perfringens isolates associated with non-food-borne human gastrointestinal diseases [In Process Citation]. J. Clin. Microbiol. 36: 30-36 [Abstract] [Full Text]