ASSAY OF THE PHOSPHATASE OF CLOSTRIDIUM-PERFRINGENS

Phosphatase was confirmed in an total of 137 strains of 12 Clostridia-Species using the 1-Naphthylphosphate reagent according to UENO et al. (1970), fluorescence in SCA medium with 4-Methylumbelliferylphosphate (MUP) as well as the testkits APIZM(R) and RAPID ID 32 A(R). In this study almost all of the species demonstrated fluorescence in SCA-MUP-medium. Correspondingly, the majority of the species and strains tested using the testkits APIZYM(R) and RAPID ID 32 A(R) were either acid or resp. additionally alkaline phosphatase positive. In most strains of C. bifermentans the demonstration of the phosphatase was only possible with MUP. The phosphatase reagent (PR) acc. to UENO et al. (1970) for the demonstration of acid phosphatase results only with C. perfringens. Therefore it appears that the SCA-MUP-medium is, in comparison to the PR, unsuitable for the identification of C. perfringens by means of the demonstration of acid phosphatase. Using the PR, enzym activity was shown in 95,2% of all investigated C. perfringens strains and in 98,3% of C. perfringens strains isolatet from common German food. The PR test can be carried out on Columbia or DST-Agar using sheep or horse blood. PR can also be used as an rapid test. Incubation at 44-degrees-C on Columbia sheep blood agar using the medium base from Unipath, 98,5% of the C. perfringens strains gave the same result after 6 hours as after 24 hours.