Detection of Clostridium perfringens in tsunami deposits after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck off the Tohoku and caused a tsunami in 2011. Most of the microbial characteristics of tsunami-affected soil remain unknown and no published study has shown how a tsunami affects the risk of infection by Clostridium perfringens living in soil. In 2011 and 2015, C. perfringens was assessed in deposits in soil from tsunami-damaged areas and undamaged areas of Miyagi. It was found that the number of C. perfringens was overwhelmingly greater in 2011 than in 2015 in the tsunami-damaged areas. According to real-time PCR, the prevalence C. perfringens organisms (%) was 103 fold greater in the damaged than in the undamaged areas.