Dependence of Clostridium botulinum gas and protease production on culture conditions

Abstract

Reports that C. botulinum toxin can sometimes be detected in the absence of indicators of overt spoilage led to a systematic study of this phenomenon in a model system. Media with various combinations of pH (5.0 to 7.0) and glucose (0.0 to 1.0%) were inoculated with vegetative cells of C. botulinum 62A and incubated anaerobically at 35°C. Although growth and toxin production occurred at all pH and glucose combinations, accumulation of gas was delayed or absent in media with low pH, low glucose levels, or both. Other proteolytic C. botulinum strains gave similar results. Trypsin activation was required to detect toxin in some low pH cultures. The trypsinization requirement correlated with low proteolytic activity in the cultures. Proteolytic activity of the strains examined was 5- to 500-fold lower in botulinal assay medium than in cooked meat medium. The results indicate that the absence of gas accumulation does not preclude the presence of botulinal toxin and that proteolytic cultures grown under adverse conditions may require trypsinization for the detection of toxin.