Studies on the Toxin Production of Clostridium Botulinum Type E I. A Strain of Genus Clostridium Having the Action to Promote Type E Botulinal Toxin Production in a Mixed Culture

Recently the authors described isolation of a strain of Cl. botulinum type E from gilthead-izushi, the food which caused an outbreak of fatal botulism in Akita. As emphasized in that report, the pure culture of Cl. botulinum type E, strain “Tenno”, could hardly produce a toxin of high potency in the culture medium of our routine use, although toxic extract from the emulsified izushi or filtrate from impure culture was of considerably high potency.Subsequent tests demonstrated that this discrepancy between the pure and impure cultures was due to another contaminants belonging to genus Clostridium, which were eventually isolated from the material and named strain No. 13. It appears likely that this strain No. 13 may have played some important role in producing toxin lethal to men in the izushi, because our experimental data indicate such action of the strain No. 13 to promote toxin production of type E organisms.This is a preliminary report dealing with isolation and the characteristics of the strain No. 13, with special reference to the relationship between growth and toxin production of type E organisms in a mixed culture. The specificity of the toxin produced will also be described.