TABLE 3.
Characteristics of new enterotoxin-producing Clostridium perfringens isolates from four outbreaks
| Characteristic | Resultk by outbreak/strain (no. of strains examined) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outbreak 1 (5) | Outbreak 2 (5) | Outbreak 3 (5) | Outbreak 4 (5) | CPE-positivea strains (10) | CPE-negativeb strains (10) | |
| C. perfringens 16S rRNAc | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) | ||||||
| RPLA | − | − | − | − | + | − |
| PCR (TaKaRa)d | − | − | − | − | + | − |
| PCR (Meer and Songer)e | − | − | − | − | + | − |
| PCR (Ishimura et al.)f | − | − | − | − | + | − |
| Other diarrheagenic toxinsg | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Rabbit ileal loop tests | + | + | + | + | NT | − |
| Cytotoxic effects to Vero cells | +h | +h | +h | +h | + | − |
| Cytotoxic effects to L929 cells | + | + | + | + | − | − |
| Lecithinase production | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Neutralization by anti-alpha-toxin | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Alpha-toxin: mouse method and PCRi | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Beta-toxin: mouse method and PCRj | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Epsilon-toxin: mouse method and PCRj | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Iota-toxin: mouse method and PCRj | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Growth on aerobic blood agar | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Motility | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Spores (subterminal) | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Gelatin hydrolysis | ||||||
| 2% | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| 10% | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Milk digestion (stormy fermentation) | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Indole production | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Hemolysis | ||||||
| Horse | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Sheep | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Rabbit | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Fermentation of: | ||||||
| Maltose | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Lactose | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Sucrose | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Salicin | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Mannitol | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Raffinose | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Cellobiose | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Inulin | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| Inositol | + | + | + | + | v | v |
| Trehalose | − | − | − | − | v | v |
a
CPE-producing C. perfringens.
b
Non-CPE-producing C. perfringens.
d
Assayed by commercial PCR kit (TaKaRa).
e
Assayed by reference 17.
f
Assayed by reference 18.
g
C. difficile toxin A and B and E. coli VT, LT, and ST were tested by PCR and RPLA or ELISA, respectively.
h
The morphological changes were different from the change by the known CPE-producing isolates.
k
NT, not tested; v, valiable reaction; +, positive; −, negative.