Experimental gas gangrene with food-poisoning Clostridium perfringens type A

Abstract

Classical and food-poisoning strains of Clostridium perfringens type A were tested for their capacity to produce gas gangrene in guinea pigs.The virulence of food-poisoning strains producing heat-sensitive spores and showing beta hemolysis on sheep-blood agar was comparable to that of the classical strains. The most virulent strains of both groups produced fatal infection with only three to five vegetative cells. Of 13 food-poisoning, heat-sensitive strains showing no beta hemolysis, only three were lethal when a minimum of 4 × 104 to 4 × 108 cells was injected. None of the food-poisoning, heat-resistant strains produced fatal infection with cell numbers up to 4 × 108. The groups of strains showed a correlation between virulence and formation of alpha toxin in liquid culture.It is concluded that a number of heat-sensitive, beta-hemolytic strains of C. perfringens may cause gas gangrene as well as food poisoning, and that the current subdivision of C. perfringens type A strains into classical and food-poisoning groups is no longer tenable.