Sporulation ability of C. perfringens isolates from meat curries available in eating houses within Colombo city of Sri Lanka in multiple sporulation media

Clostridium perfringens is a well-known foodborne pathogen across the globe. Sporulation is of utmost importance in the growth curve of this anaerobic bacterium to withstand extreme environmental conditions and deprivation of nutrients. Present study was conducted to sporulate 78 of C. perfringens isolates obtained from meat curries available in eating houses within Colombo City, Sri Lanka using three sporulation media namely: Modified Duncan and Strong (MDS), Sporulation Broth (SB) and Duncan and Strong (DS). Other components were more or less same in these sporulation media but the slowly fermentable carbohydrate source was different in each media. Raffinose (MDS) was superior to soluble starch (SB) and starch (DS) stimulating sporulation of meat isolates. Modified Duncan and Strong medium was the most efficient of the three sporulation media with total of 41 meat isolates were sporulated when compared with 28 and 26 in SB and DS respectively. Sporulation was higher for chicken isolates 33(70.2%) than for beef isolates 15(48.4%).There was a statistically significant difference in sporulation of C.perfringens isolates from both chicken and beef curry isolates, in MDS when compared with DS and SB individually as well as combinations MDS vs. DS and MDS vs. SB (p<0.05). This study highlights the importance of optimizing these three media and usage of additional media to sporulate non sporulate C. perfringens isolates.