Synthetic DNA probes for detection of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens strains isolated from outbreaks of food poisoning.

Four synthetic oligonucleotides encoding different parts of the Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin gene were used to test the enterotoxigenicity of C. perfringens strains isolated from confirmed outbreaks of food poisoning. Of the 245 strains isolated from food and feces originating from 186 separate outbreaks, 145 (59%) gave hybridization reactions with each of the four DNA probes used, while 104 strains did not hybridize with any of the probes. There was no correlation between serotype and the presence of the enterotoxin gene, although the C. perfringens enterotoxin gene was rarely detected among nontypable strains (17%). Results show that DNA hybridization is a suitable method for the identification of C. perfringens strains which have the potential to produce enterotoxin.