Tentative Method for the Qualitative Detection and Quantitative Assessment of Air Contamination by Drugs

A method for detecting and measuring air contamination by drugs is described which uses an electrostatic bacterial air sampler, sprayers for micronizing drugs, and Mueller-Hinton medium seeded with a highly susceptible strain of Sarcina lutea. Three antibiotics (penicillin, tetracycline, aminosidine) and a sulfonamide (sulfapyrazine) were identified by pretreating portions of medium, showing no bacterial growth, with penicillinase or p-aminobenzoic acid solution and subsequently determining how both drug(-) susceptible and drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus were affected by this pretreatment. Quantitative determinations were also attempted by measuring the size of the inhibition zones.     

Detection of α- and ε-toxigenic Clostridium perfringens Type D in sheep and goats using a DNA amplification technique (PCR)

Clostridium perfringens isolated from sheep and goat with enterotoxaemia at necropsy and from healthy animals at slaughter were typed using specific PCR assays for the detection of the α-, β- and ε-toxin genes. Clostridium perfringens isolated from all 52 animals with pathological signs of enterotoxaemia showed the presence of the α- and ε-toxin genes but were devoid of the β-toxin gene. These strains could therefore be identified as type D, characteristic for clostridial enterotoxaemia of sheep, lambs and goats. In contrast, Cl. perfringens isolated from 11 of 13 healthy animals only contained the α-toxin gene which is typical for type A. Two of the healthy animals contained Cl. perfringens with the α- and ε-toxin genes. However, when several individual Cl. perfringens colonies were analysed from each of these two animals, only a small percentage was found to contain the ε-toxin gene, whereas the majority of the colonies were of type A with the α-toxin gene only. This is in contrast to the findings from the diseased animals which contained practically only type D Cl. perfringens . The β-toxin gene was not found in any Cl. perfringens isolate from goat and sheep. Comparison of the PCR data with results obtained by the classical biological toxin assay using the mouse model showed a good correlation.