Prevalence of Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile carrying cpa, tcdA toxin genes in raw meat and leafy vegetables

The genus Clostridium is a Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium. Most species of Clostridium spp. usually are found in soil, water, dead plants, animal carcasses, and play an important role in the decomposition of substances in nature. Raw meat and fresh vegetable are more likely to be contaminated with spores or vegetative cells of the genus Clostridium. The study results showed that the percentage of samples contaminated with raw meat and leafy vegetables collected at markets in Dong Da, Ha Dong and Hoang Mai districts infected with C. perfringens was 26.67% (n = 150) and 26.82% (n = 220). The percentage of raw meat and leafy vegetable samples contaminated with C. difficile was very low with 6.00% (n = 150) and 0.9% (n = 220), respectively. Gene amplification reactions revealed the presence of cpa toxin gene in all C. perfringens strains and detected 02 C. difficile strains carrying the tcdA gene.