Food Safety and Security: Discussion 5 Clostridium perfringens

Clostridium perfringens food poisoning is not an intoxication or an infection, rather it is caused by consuming large amounts usually through temperature-abused foods from viable vegetative cells. The cells survive the stomach and sporulate in the small intestine where the enterotoxin C. perfringens enterotoxin is produced and released with mature spores. The illness makes people sick with abdominal pain and diarrhea within 8-24 hours. In 24 hours, the symptoms usually go away. Fatalities are rare, and are normally the elderly or people who have been hospitalized.

The body tries to clear itself of the toxin through diarrhea. It causes internal damage which makes the reversal of net transport of the small intestine. This means it secretes water, sodium and chloride. It has several effects on the cells, which can cause the body to lose some viability do to the macromolecular precursors being loss.  The disease has had some severe versions, which include necrotizing, hemorrhagic jejunitis and toxisemia and shock. The cells begin to break down in response to the activities of the toxin which it is trying to get rid of.

Only in sporulating cultures will the enterotoxin be released It has about a dozen exotoxins as well as enterotoxins. It consumes a lot of nutritional resources for its maintenance. Spores may survive cooking processes which allows it to survive and infect after food is cooked. Hot foods should be maintained at the recommended temperature and food which are being reheated should reach a 71C to kill vegetative cells.  The characteristics of clostridial organisms can be problematic when causing foodborne illnesses by spores and vegetative cells being resistant to the cooking process. They are able to produce a variety of enterotoxins and exotoxins.

Its ability to demonstrate that it caused fluid accumulation in the ligated ileal loops of rabbits it was able to show that it was a contributing factor to food poisoning. IT is a very fast illness, due to the turnover of intestinal epithelia cells which the enterotoxin binds to. This means that there is a removal of unbound toxin as well, due to diarrhea. It has been tested on tissue cell cultures but has difficulty being grown on cultures in the lab. However, tests on the Vero cells have been useful to determine what the mode of action is of the toxin at the cellular levels. This is how we determined some of its qualities, and how we determined its effects. It is still not determined if it affects the human large intestine.

The C. perfringens is a large aerotolerant anaerobic rod from the Bacillacae family which is Gram-positive. It is non motile. IT is able to survive at high temperatures, through the processing of food. It is able to produce the exotocins and endotoxins. Alpha-toxin is common but Type A creates the most. There are five types A-E which are all based off the major lethal toxins or their absence. This is what breaks the tissue down with gangrene. Extreme pH, low water activity or high salt concentration is not an ideal growing medium for C. perfringens.