Detection of Clostridium perfringens and Determination of Enterotoxin Genes (CPA and CPE) in Traditional Turkish Chicken Doner Kebab

Abstract

The demand for the fast-food industry in the world is increasing day by day. In this sense, chicken doner kebab becomes frequently preferred food source in daily life. At the same time, chicken doner kebab is both a good animal origin protein source and a cheaper option. Therefore, it is prepared and consumed in high amounts in Turkey. In this study, it was aimed to determine the presence of Clostridium perfringens and its toxin genes in traditional Turkish chicken doner kebabs purchased from restaurants and modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) samples collected from markets. For this purpose, 100 ready-to-cook and 100 ready-to-eat, totally 200 doner samples have been used as material. As a result, the prevalence of C. perfringens has been found 29%, 6% in ready to-cook and ready-to-eat samples, respectively. The cpa gene was detected in all isolates. However, both cpa and cpe gene was found only in 4% of isolates.