A total of 300 meat samples including chicken, mutton, and beef (100 each) collected from local butcher shops as well as large meat outlets and grocery stores situated in various localities of Lahore were analyzed to determine the level of C. perfringens contamination. The samples were enriched in Fluid Thioglycollate Medium (FTM), purified on Tryptose Sulfite Cycloserine (TSC) agar that is highly selective media for C. perfringens and were identified by their culture characters, morphology and biochemical profile. C. perfringens was successfully isolated from 12 out of 300 samples with an overall positivity ratio of 4 %. A relatively higher percent prevalence of the C. perfringens was found in meat from local butcher shops (6.66 %) in comparison to the ones collected from the larger meat outlets (1.33 %) where meat is supplied under cold chain management system. Within each meat type a total of 6, 5, and 1 of the samples from chicken, mutton, and beef meat, respectively were found positive for the presence of C. perfringens.
Toxinotyping of the positive isolates was performed using commercially available alpha, beta, and epsilon toxins detection ELISA kits. Out of 12 confirmed isolates of C. perfringens only six were found positive for the production of various toxins. Three of the isolates produced alpha toxin and were grouped as type A, one of the isolate produced alpha, beta and epsilon toxin therefore confirmed as type B, one of the isolates produced alpha and beta toxin so belong to type C whereas one of the isolate produced alpha and epsilon toxin so it was grouped as type D while six of the isolates did not produce any toxin.
The toxin producing isolates were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing against 13 antibiotics commonly employed to treat the foodborne infections. It was observed that most of the antibiotics were effective against C. perfringens exhibiting a wider zone of inhibition around the antibiotic discs. All the six isolates were susceptible to the chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, and ceftriaxone. Five out of six isolates were susceptible whereas one of the isolate was classified as intermediate against tetracycline, lincomycin, and cefotaxime. Five isolates were sensitive and one was resistant to erythromycin. Four isolates were susceptible to penicillin and one each was intermediate and resistant to the antibiotic. All of the other drugs were relatively less effective with a least activity of amoxicillin against the isolates.