Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Apr;14(2):102-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2008.01.003. Epub 2008 Feb 7.

Clostridium perfringens toxin genotypes in the feces of healthy North Americans

Robert J Carman  1 , Sameera Sayeed, Jihong Li, Christopher W Genheimer, Megan F Hiltonsmith, Tracy D Wilkins, Bruce A McClane
Affiliations

Clostridium perfringens toxin genotypes in the feces of healthy North Americans

Robert J Carman et al. Anaerobe. 2008 Apr.

Abstract

We investigated the frequency of Clostridium perfringens in the normal fecal flora of healthy North Americans. About half of 43 subjects were colonized with C. perfringens at levels of approximately 10(6)cfu/g feces. Only type A strains were recovered. Spores sometimes outnumbered vegetative cells. Several genotypes were found. Some donors carried two genotypes, some only one. We found no alpha, beta2 or enterotoxin in the stools of any donors. Though some isolates carried toxin genes (e.g. cpe and cpb2) on plasmids, we saw no indication that healthy humans are the reservoir for the chromosomally-borne cpe recovered from cases of C. perfringens food poisoning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Klein E. Uber einen pathogenen anaeroben Darmbacillus, Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes. Zentralbl Bakteriol Parasitenkd Infektionskr Hyg Abt 1 Orig. 1895;18:737–743.
    1. McClung LS. Human food poisoning due to growth of Clostridium perfringens (C. welchii) in freshly cooked chicken: Preliminary note. J Bacteriol. 1945;50:229–231. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sarker MR, Carman RJ, McClane BA. Inactivation of the gene (cpe) encoding Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin eliminates the ability of two cpe-positive C. perfringens Type A human intestinal disease isolates to affect rabbit ileal loops. Molec Microbiol. 1999;33:946–958. - PubMed
    1. Brett MM, Rodhouse JC, Donovan TJ, Tebbutt GM, Hutchinson DN. Detection of Clostridium perfringens and its enterotoxin in cases of sporadic diarrhoea. J Clin Pathol. 1992;145:609–611. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mpamugo O, Donovan T, Brett MM. Enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens as a cause of sporadic cases of diarrhoea. J Med Microbiol. 1995;43:442–445. - PubMed

Publication types