title: Incidence of Clostridium botulinum in honey of various origins.
abstract: By the dilution-centrifugation method, 270 honey samples, both domestic and imported, were examined and Clostridium botulinum was detected in 23 samples (8.5%); type A in 11 samples, type B in two, type C in 10, and type F in one. Of 58 domestic honey samples, six (10%) were positive; three gave type A and the other two type C. Among imported honey samples, Chinese honey gave 12% positives (types A, B, and C) and Argentina honey 20% positives (types A and F). The incidence was higher with samples taken from drums (18%) and from apiaries (23%) than marketing honey (5%). It was estimated that most positive samples contained spores in one per gram or lower concentrations. One sample contained 4 type A spores per gram and another 36-60 type F spores per gram. No distinct biochemical properties were found with the honey isolates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Microbiology and Hygiene, Hiroshima University.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okabe
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sakaguchi
mesh_terms: D003014:Clostridium botulinum / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006722:Honey; D013171:Spores, Bacterial