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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 1999, p. 2209-2214, Vol. 37, No. 7
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Molecular Subtyping of Clostridium perfringens by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis To Facilitate Food-Borne-Disease Outbreak Investigations

Susan E. Maslanka,1,* Jared G. Kerr,1 Glen Williams,2 James M. Barbaree,2 Loretta A. Carson,3 J. Michael Miller,3 and Bala Swaminathan1

Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases,1 and Hospital Infections Program,3 National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, and Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama2

Received 22 December 1998/Returned for modification 1 February 1999/Accepted 9 April 1999

Clostridium perfringens is a common cause of food-borne illness. The illness is characterized by profuse diarrhea and acute abdominal pain. Since the illness is usually self-limiting, many cases are undiagnosed and/or not reported. Investigations are often pursued after an outbreak involving large numbers of people in institutions, at restaurants, or at catered meals. Serotyping has been used in the past to assist epidemiologic investigations of C. perfringens outbreaks. However, serotyping reagents are not widely available, and many isolates are often untypeable with existing reagents. We developed a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method for molecular subtyping of C. perfringens isolates to aid in epidemiologic investigations of food-borne outbreaks. Six restriction endonucleases (SmaI, ApaI, FspI, MluI, KspI, and XbaI) were evaluated with a select panel of C. perfringens strains. SmaI was chosen for further studies because it produced 11 to 13 well-distributed bands of 40 to ~1,100 kb which provided good discrimination between isolates. Seventeen distinct patterns were obtained with 62 isolates from seven outbreak investigations or control strains. In general, multiple isolates from a single individual had indistinguishable PFGE patterns. Epidemiologically unrelated isolates (outbreak or control strains) had unique patterns; isolates from different individuals within an outbreak had similar, if not identical, patterns. PFGE identifies clonal relationships of isolates which will assist epidemiologic investigations of food-borne-disease outbreaks caused by C. perfringens.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., Mailstop C03, Atlanta, GA 30333. Phone: (404) 639-3867. Fax: (404) 639-3333. E-mail: SHT5{at}CDC.GOV.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 1999, p. 2209-2214, Vol. 37, No. 7
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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