Prevalence of Enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens Isolates in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Area Soils and Home Kitchens

In the United States and Europe, food poisoning due toClostridium perfringens type A is predominantly caused byC. perfringens isolates carrying a chromosomal enterotoxin gene (cpe ). Neither the reservoir for these isolates nor the point in the food chain where these bacteria contaminate foods is currently understood. Therefore, the current study investigated whether type A isolates carrying a chromosomalcpe gene are present in two potential reservoirs, i.e., soil and home kitchen surfaces. NoC. perfringens isolates were recovered from home kitchen surfaces, but most surveyed soil samples containedC. perfringens . The recovered soil isolates were predominantly type A, but some type C, D, and E soil isolates were also identified. Allcpe -positive isolates recovered from soil were genotyped as type A, with theircpe genes oncpe plasmids rather than the chromosome. However, twocpe -positive soil isolates did not carry a classicalcpe plasmid. Both of those atypicalcpe -positive soil isolates were sporulation capable yet failed to produceC. perfringens enterotoxin, possibly because of differences in their upstream promoter regions. Collectively these results suggest that neither soil nor home kitchen surfaces represent major reservoirs for type A isolates with chromosomalcpe that cause food poisoning, although soil does appear to be a reservoir forcpe -positive isolates causing non-food-borne gastrointestinal diseases.