AMOUNT OF ENTEROTOXIGENIC CLOSTRIDIUM-PERFRINGENS IN MEAT DETECTED BYNESTED PCR

The incidence and quantity of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens in beef, pork, and chicken meat were determined and compared with that of the total enterotoxigenic and nonenterotoxigenic C. perfringens. T he method for the detection and quantification of enterotoxigenic C. p erfringens consisted of a combination of the most probable number (MPN ) method and a nested polymerase chain reaction after culturing of the sample. The results obtained by this method for inoculated meat sampl es were significantly correlated with those obtained by the plate coun t method. When the method was applied to the detection and quantificat ion of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens found in randomly selected meat samples, the organism was found in 2% of the beef pieces (< 10(2) MPN/ 100 g) and 12% of the chicken pieces (< 10(2)-4.3 x 10(2) MPN/100 g) o ut of the 50 pieces of each meat tested. No enterotoxigenic C. perfrin gens was found in pork. Total C. perfringens was found in 16% of the b eef (<10(2)-4.3 x 10(2) MPN/100 g), 10% of the pork (<10(2) MPN/100 g) , and 84% of the chicken ( < 10(2)-9.3 X 10(3) MPN/100 g) when 50 piec es of each meat was tested by the conventional MPN method. As shown in the above methods, the majority of cells were not enterotoxigenic cel ls in the population of C. perfringens. A small number of enterotoxige nic cells of C. perfringens co-existed with a large number of nonenter otoxigenic cells in the same meat sample. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B. V.