Question

"A microbiology technologist is reading an anaerobic culture and observes a double zone of hemolysis on an anaerobically incubated sheep blood agar plate. The Gram stain of that organism was a boxcar-shaped, gram-positive bacillus. What organism is this?"

Answer 1

Answer:

Clostridium perfringens

Explanation:

Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium characterized by being a large, gram-positive, boxcar-shaped bacillus.

It is part of the facultative aerobic bacteria group (they can survive both in the presence or absence of oxygen) and is also a spore-forming bacterium (spores are small structures capable of generating new bacteria).

Clostridium perfringens can cause food poisoning, which results from the ingestion of contaminated food (usually meat and animal products) by the bacteria.

Once in the small intestine, the bacteria releases the toxin that usually causes diarrhea.