Research Publications (Food Safety)

Clostridium perfringens causes a variety of human and animal enteric diseases including food poisoning, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and necrotic enteritis. Yet, the reservoirs of enteropathogenic enterotoxin-producing strains remain unknown. We conducted a genomic comparison of 290 strains and a heat resistance phenotyping of 30 C. perfringens strains to elucidate the population structure and ecology of this pathogen. C.

Abstract

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. ABSTRACT

The alpha (CPA), beta (CPB) and epsilon (ETX) toxins of Clostridium perfringens are responsible for causing diseases that are difficult to eradicate and have lethal potential in production animals. Vaccination of herds is still the best control strategy. Recombinant clostridial vaccines have shown good success at inducing neutralizing antibody titers and appear to be a viable alternative to the conventional production of commercial clostridial toxoids.

Author(s): Yanfen Jiang, Yinghui Ma, Qianqian Liu, Tianmei Li, Yiming Li, Kangkang Guo, Yanming Zhang

Necrotic enteritis (NE), an economically devastating disease of poultry caused by pathogenic Clostridium perfringens, is known to induce small intestinal lesions and dysbiosis. However, the intestinal microbes that are associated with NE severity are yet to be characterized. Here, we investigated the link between the ileal microbiota and disease severity in a chicken model of clinical NE using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Author(s): Derongs Lorine, Druilhe Céline, Le Maréchal Caroline, Barbut Frédéric, Heurtevent Lorette, Buffet Julie, Martin Laure, Ziebal Christine, Poezevara Typhaine, Rouxel Sandra, Houard Emmanuelle, Syed Zaidi Rabab, Couturier Jeanne, Pourcher Anne-Marie

In horses, Clostridium perfringens is associated with acute and fatal enterocolitis, which is caused by a beta toxin (CPB), and myonecrosis, which is caused by an alpha toxin (CPA). Although the most effective way to prevent these diseases is through vaccination, specific clostridial vaccines for horses against C. perfringens are not widely available. The aim of this study was to pioneer the immunization of horses with three different concentrations (100, 200 and 400 µg) of C.

In the present study, the antimicrobial efficiency of thymol and thymol-nanoemulsion (NE) was investigated against S. aureus, E. coli, and C. perfringens on a sausage product during 4 weeks. The droplets size of the thymol-NE was 86.39 nm with the zeta potential of −0.86 mV. The MIC and MBC values for thymol were approximately twice that of NE, indicating that NE was more effective in inhibiting the growth of three tested bacteria.

Author(s): Courtney A. Fancher, Hudson T. Thames, Mary Gates Colvin, Li Zhang, Nikhil Nuthalapati, Aaron Kiess, Thu T.N. Dinh, Anuraj Theradiyil Sukumaran

Sepsis caused by Clostridium perfringens infection is rare but often fatal. The most serious complication leading to poor prognosis is massive intravascular hemolysis (MIH). However, the molecular mechanism underlying this fulminant form of hemolysis is unclear. In the present study, we employed 11 clinical strains isolated from patients with C. perfringens septicemia and subdivided these isolates into groups H and NH: septicemia with (n = 5) or without (n = 6) MIH, respectively.

Author(s): Mojtaba Alimolaei, Mehdi Golchin, Amin Baluch-akbari

The application of plant extracts (PEs) could be a promising option to satisfy consumers’ demand for natural additives to inhibit growth of variable pathogenic bacteria. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a standardized microdilution method to examine the antimicrobial effects of ten hydrophilic plant extracts against two strains of C. perfringens facing various food-relevant influencing factors.

Clostridium perfringens is an opportunistic pathogenic bacterium that infects both animals and humans. Clostridium perfringens genomes encode a diverse array of toxins and virulence proteins, which continues to expand as more genomes are sequenced. In this study, the genomes of 44 C. perfringens strains isolated from intestinal sections of diseased cattle and from broiler chickens from diseased and healthy flocks were sequenced.

Background

Author(s): Liyou Dong, Renata M.C. Ariëns, Antoine H.P. America, Aman Paul, Teun Veldkamp, Jurriaan J. Mes, Harry J. Wichers, Coen Govers

Author(s): Vijay K. Juneja, Marangeli Osoria, Anuj S. Purohit, Chase E. Golden, Abhinav Mishra, Neetu K. Taneja, Joelle K. Salazar, Harshavardhan Thippareddi, Govindaraj Dev Kumar

Microbiology and Immunology, Accepted Article. Fibronectin (Fn) is an approximately 450 kDa glycoprotein that is comprised of 12 type I, 2 type II, and 15–17 type III modules. Fibrillation of Fn is important for tissue reconstitution and wound healing. We previously reported that Clostridium perfringens produces several Fn‐binding proteins (Fbps), two of which, FbpA and FbpB, bind to III1‐C (a fragment of Fn derived from the carboxyl‐terminal two‐thirds of the first type III module).

Disease control in animal production systems requires constant vigilance. Historically, the application of in-feed antibiotics to control bacteria and improve performance has been a much-used approach to maintain animal health and welfare. However, the widespread use of in-feed antibiotics is thought to increase the risk of antibiotic resistance developing. Alternative methods to control disease and maintain productivity need to be developed.

Author(s): Zhijun Geng, Lin Kang, Jing Huang, Shan Gao, Jing Wang, Yuan Yuan, Yanwei Li, Jinglin Wang, Wenwen Xin

Zoonoses and Public Health, EarlyView. The current study is undertaken to characterize the prevalence, genotypes distribution, antibiotic resistance and genetic diversity of Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) collected from different stages of a chicken production chain.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) degrading enzymes produced by Clostridium perfringens may play an important role during the initial phases of avian necrotic enteritis by facilitating toxin entry in the intestinal mucosa and destruction of the tissue. C. perfringens is known to produce several ECM-degrading proteases, such as kappa toxin, an extracellular collagenase that is encoded by the colA gene. In this study, the colA gene sequence of a collection of 48 C.

ABSTRACT Clostridium perfringens type F food poisoning (FP) strains cause one of the most common foodborne illnesses. This FP develops when type F FP strains sporulate in the intestines and produce C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE), which is responsible for the diarrhea and abdominal cramps of this disease. While C.

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) regularly causes food poisoning and antibiotic-associated diarrhea; therefore, reliable toxin detection is crucial. To this aim, we explored stationary and mobile strategies to detect CPE either exclusively by monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) or, alternatively, by toxin-enrichment via the cellular receptor of CPE, claudin-4, and mAb detection.

Clostridium perfringens is a major human pathogen that causes gastroenteritis via enterotoxin production and has the ability to form spores and biofilms for environmental persistence and disease transmission. This study aimed to compare the disinfectant and environmental resistance properties of C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores in planktonic and sessile conditions, and to examine the nucleotide polymorphisms and transcription under sessile conditions in C.