Bacteriological investigation of an outbreak of Clostridium perfringens food poisoning caused by Japanese food without animal protein

An outbreak of Clostridium perfringens food poisoning occurred in a senior citizen's home in Japan. Japanese food, spinach boiled with fried bean curd , was considered to be the causative food as a result of the detection of t he C. perfringens enterotoxin gene by nested PCR. The number of enterotoxin -positive C. perfringens was enumerated as 4.3 x 10(5)/g in the causative f ood by the MPN method combined with nested PCR. By cultivation, enterotoxin -positive C. perfringens was isolated from all the fecal specimens of patie nts tested and the causative food. The isolates from patients were serotypa ble, heat-resistant and the majority produced enterotoxin, however most iso lates from the causative food were nonserotypable, enterotoxin-negative and heat-sensitive. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.