Germinability and Heat Resistance of Spores ofClostridium difficileStrains

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Abstract
Of 111 C. difficile strains, 108 produced spores in numbers of > 105/ml and the remaining 3 did not produce any spores in brain heart infusion medium. The germination frequency in the medium without lysozyme varied widely from strain to strain, ranging from < 10-8 to 100, and in 77 of the 108 strains the germination frequency was .ltoreq. 10-5. The spores, when treated with sodium thioglycollate and then inoculated into the medium containing lysoyme, germinated in all of the 108 strains at a frequency of .gtoreq. 10-0.5. The spores of 2 strains germinated at a frequency of > 10-0.5 in all methods. Spores of C. difficile strains were fairly highly heat-resistant; D100.degree. C values ranged from 2.5 to 33.5 min.