title: [Presence of Clostridium perfringens in meat-based preparations in public food services in central San Jose, Costa Rica].
abstract: In Costa Rica there are a large number of public food services distributed along the country, where a considerable number of people eat daily. Clostridium perfringens is a bacteria associated with foodborne illness related, especially, to meat products kept for long time at temperatures under 70 degrees C. The aim of this study was to evaluate the public food services that use water baths for keeping food hot in order to establish the presence of C. perfringens in cooked bovine meat dishes and to evaluate the enterotoxigenic capacity of the strains isolated. 81 samples of cooked bovine meat plates coming from 27 public food services, located in the Central County of San José were analyzed. The methodology described by Labbe & Harmon for the isolation of C. perfringens was used in 10 g of sample. Also, the enterotoxigenic capacity of the strains was evaluated using the passive-reverse-latex-agglutination assay from Oxoid. From the 27 public food services analyzed, eight (30%) were positive in the three samplings done, nine (33%) were positive in one or two occasions, and ten (37%) were negative all times. This implies that in 17 (63%) of the establishments studied, the bacteria was isolated at least once. From the 81 preparations studied, 37 (46%) were positive for the bacteria. The temperatures at which food was kept varied from 56 to 82 degrees C, with an average of 68.7 degrees C. From the 37 strains identified as C. perfringens, 12 (32%) were positive for enterotoxin. In conclusion, the presence of C. perfringens in bovine meat dishes, maintained in water baths, represents an important risk for public health, and the temperature at which the preparation is kept is critical for the multiplication of the bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales, CIET.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Gamboa
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Arias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003364:Costa Rica; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000032:analysis; D005513:Food Inspection; D005519:Food Preservation; D005522:Food Services; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D011200:Poultry; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins; C035598:enterotoxin, Clostridium