Iron milk medium method for recovering Clostridium perfringens from shellfish: collaborative study.

Eleven laboratories participated in a collaborative study analyzing shellfish (oysters, Crassostrea gigas) for the detection and enumeration of Clostridium perfringens by the iron milk medium (IMM) method. The IMM method was compared to AOAC Official Method 976.30. Shellfish were artificially inoculated with C. perfringens cells (vegetative and spores) at low (1 x 10(3) colony forming units [cfu]/g), medium (1 x 10(4) cfu/g), and high (1 x 10(6) cfu/g) levels. Negative controls (zero level) were analyzed by each laboratory. C. perfringens FD-1, the strain involved in a foodborne illness, was used. Blind duplicates of each inoculum level were analyzed, giving a total of 16 samples per laboratory. The selectivity of IMM relies solely on the rapid growth of C. perfringens at 45 degrees C indicated by stormy fermentation reaction within 18 h. C. perfringens is detected and enumerated using the most probable number technique. A statistical evaluation of the data found no significant differences between the estimates from the 2 methods. The IMM method for detection of C. perfringens from shellfish has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.