EN
The occurrcnce of Clostridium perfringens in particular links of food chain and their toxic potential was studied. Compound feeding stuffs, poultry, swine, and bovine faeces, food of animal origin, and human faeces were examined microbiologically. The isolated anaerobes were analysed for presence of toxin genes (cpa, cpb, cpb2, etx, iap, and cpe). The presence of C. perfringens on level higher than 1.0 x 10¹ cfu/g were detected in 68% of feed samples, 36% of poultry faeces, 92% of swine faeces, 67% of bovine faeces, 4% of food samples, and in 67% of human faeces. The detected levels of type A C. perfringens strains did not exceed the number of these strains physiologically present in the intestines of birds and mammals. Food and feed samples also revealed good microbiological quality. The identification of toxin type and subtype revealed domination of type A strains and among them the percentage of subtype ß2 strains varied considerably. The second toxotype detected was toxotype E. There were no cpe-positive strains in the analysed food of animal origin.