Browsing by Author "Malk, Ria"

The purpose of the study was to determine the occurrence of various genotypes of cpe gene-carrying (cpe-positive) Clostridium perfringens type A and the general occurrence of C. perfringens in the scalding water before and after the scalding of pigs. The scalding water was collected from one small slaughterhouse on 6 different days. The scalding water was filtered through a hydrophobic grid membrane and the bacteria were grown on tryptose-sulfite-cycloserine (TSC) agar. The cpe-positive C. perfringens strains were found from the grid membrane using colony hybridization. By combining colony hybridization with grid membrane filtration it is possible to examine tens of thousands of colonies and isolate the cpe-positive C. perfringens strains among the colonies using only small sample sizes. The isolated C. perfringens strains were confirmed by multiplex PCR. Specific primers have been created to recognise various types of C. perfringens. Using these primers the existence of the genes coding alpha (cpa), beta (cpb), epsilon (etx), iota (iA) and enterotoxins (cpe) in the sample being examined can be determined. C. perfringens was found in five samples (83 %) taken after the scalding. C. perfringens was found in only one (17 %) sample taken before the scalding. There were no C. perfringens found in one (17 %) of the batches of samples. All isolated C. perfringens were type A. None of the isolates carried the cpe gene. Based on the present study the scalding water could not be shown to be a remarkable reservoir of strains of the cpe-positive C. perfringens type A. However cpe negative C. perfringens type A could be found in all but one batch of samples taken from the scalding water so it is possible that cpe positive strains will also end up in the water.