Ninety randomized samples of various vacuum-packed meat products, including as sausage, frankfurter and salami, were selected at random from several Menofyia governorate supermarkets in order to be tested for the presence of Clostridium perfringens and its virulence genes, as well as anaerobic spore formers. The results showed that the prevalence of anaerobic spore forming bacteria was 18 (60%), 25(83.33%) and 26 (86.67%) in salami, Frankfurter and Sausage, respectively. The mean values of anaerobic spore forming bacteria count in vacuum packed salami, Frankfurter and Sausage were 1.09×103± 0.17×103, 3.22×103± 0.58×103 and 5.61×103± 1.20×103, respectively. Also, the prevalence of Clostridium perfringens in the vacuum packed Salami, Frankfurter and Sausage were 46.67%, 63.33% and 70%, respectively. Furthermore, the mean values of Clostridium perfringens counts for Salami, Frankfurter and Sausage were 9.95×102± 2.14×102, 2.18×103± 0.37×103 and 3.87×103± 0.65×103CFU/g, respectively. The acceptability of vacuum packed Salami, Frankfurter and Sausage meat products based on their contamination with Clostridium perfringens was 53.33%, 36.67% and 30 % were accepted, while 46.67%, 63.33% and 70% were unaccepted, respectively.
Moreover, cpa (402 bp), cpb (236 bp), cpx (541bp) and iap (317 bp) virulence enterotoxin genes of C. perfringens was detected from meat products by using agarose gel electrophoresis of multiplex PCR. the incidence of virulence genes of Clostridium perfringens was 50%, 50% and 25% for cpa gene while it was 25%, 25% and 25 % for cpa & cpb genes and 25%, 25% and 25% for cpa & cpx genes and 0%, 0% and 25% for cpa, cpb & iap