Humans as Reservoir for Enterotoxin Gene–carrying Clostridium perfringens Type A

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Heikinheimo, Annamari ; Lindström, Miia ; Granum, Per Einar ; Korkeala, Hannu
• Description:
  We found a prevalence of 18% for enterotoxin gene-carrying (cpe+) Clostridium perfringens in the feces of healthy food handlers by PCR and isolated the organism from 11 of 23 PCR-positive persons by using hydrophobic grid membrane filter-colony hybridization. Several different cpe genotypes were recovered. The prevalence was 3.7% for plasmidial IS1151-cpe, 2.9% for plasmidial IS1470-like-cpe, 0.7% for chromosomal IS1470-cpe, and 1.5% for unknown cpe genotype. Lateral spread of cpe between C. perfringens strains was evident because strains from the same person carried IS1470-like cpe but shared no genetic relatedness according to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis. Our findings suggest that healthy humans serve as a rich reservoir for cpe+ C. perfringens type A and may play a role in the etiology of gastrointestinal diseases caused by this organism. The results also indicate that humans should be considered a risk factor for spread of C. perfringens type A food poisoning and that they are a possible source of contamination for C. perfringens type A food poisoning.
• Subjects:
  Animals Cercopithecus Aethiops Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field Enterotoxins Feces Female Foodborne Diseases Food Handling Genotype Humans Male Vero Cells

  More +
• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 12(11):1724-1729.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  12
• Issue:
  11
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:981ff487deccba16652afddea93963183a99aa8a9b96db8862a7d601df3f28ec
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/16333/cdc_16333_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 243.32 KB ]