J Korean Soc Microbiol.  1998 Feb;33(1):49-54.

Isolation of Enterotoxin - positive Strains of Clostridium perfringens Type A in Korea

• Kim SY
• Lee KW
• Ryu SR
• Jung IK
• Lee KH

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobe responsible for a wide range of diseases in animals and humans. Symptoms associated with C. perfringens food poisoning are caused by enterotoxin expressed only during sporulation of C. perfringens. It has been known that only 6% of global C. perfringens isolates carry the enterotoxin gene. We found 2 strains of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens out of 33 strains isolated from various sources in Korea using PCR. It was also found that these two strains were both type A that were strongly associated with food poisoning by checking the presence of four major lethal toxins (a-, B-, e-, l-toxin) using PCR. These results suggest that foodborne illness caused by C. perfringens may be common in Korea and that public education is necessary to prevent contamination of foods by this organism.

MeSH Terms

Animals
Clostridium perfringens*
Clostridium*
Education
Enterotoxins*
Foodborne Diseases
Humans
Korea*
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Enterotoxins