Clostridium tetani in a Metropolitan Area: A Limited Survey Incorporating a Simplified in Vitro Identification Test.

ABSTRACT

In a limited survey, three toxigenic and one nontoxigenic strains of Clostridium tetani were isolated from 18 environmental samples from metropolitan Boston. No C. tetani was found in 100 samples of human feces, 20 samples of dog feces, and two samples of horse feces. A simple modification of the halo precipitin test was studied in conjunction with the mouse lethality test for tetanus toxigenicity and was found to be a useful, although not a wholly definitive, technique.