J.L. Williamson Tonie E. Rocke Thomas M. Yuill P. Nol 2004 <p><span>We established a method of directly detecting </span><i>Clostridium botulinum</i><span> type C cells, while minimizing spore detection, in the intestinal contents of Mozambique tilapia (</span><i>Oreochromis mossambicus</i><span>). This technique involved extraction of predominantly cellular DNA from tilapia intestinal tracts and used a polymerase chain reaction assay to detect presence of type C</span>₁<span> toxin gene. We consistently detected </span><i>C. botulinum</i><span> type C cells in tilapia gastrointestinal contents at a level of 7.5×10</span>⁴<span> cells per 0.25 g material or 1.9×10</span>³<span> cells. This technique is useful for determining prevalence of the potentially active organisms within a given population of fish and may be adapted to other types of </span><i>C. botulinum</i><span> and vertebrate populations as well.</span></p> application/pdf 10.7589/0090-3558-40.4.749 en Wildlife Disease Association Detection of Clostridium botulinum type C cells in the gastrointestinal tracts of Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) by polymerase chain reaction article