Recovery of heat-injured vegetative cells and spores of Clostridium perfringens was evaluated on selective media, CW Egg-yolk agar with kanamycin (ECW+A), Tryptose sulfite cycloserine agar(TSC+A)and modified Handford agar (mHFA). As a result of heat treatment at 54℃ for 15 min, viable counts of C. perfringens vegetative cells on a selective medium (ECW+A)was significantly less than those on non-selective media. This means C. perfringens vegetative cells should be in an injured state. Comparing of the three selective media, TSC+A was the best growth and recovery of heat-injured C. perfringens vegetative cells. Recovery on ECW+A was 1 log CFU/ml less than that on TSC+A. Supplementation of TSC+A with sodium pyruvate (0.1-0.5%) further enhanced recovery and detection of heat-injured C. perfringens vegetative cells, and its efficacy was the highest on TSC+A supplemented with 0.3% sodium pyruvate. Supplementation of TSC+A with sodium pyruvate did not affect recovery of heat-injured (95℃, 2 or 60 min) C. perfringens spores. These findings suggest that TSC+A is the most favorable medium for enumeration of C. perfringens and supplementation with sodium pyruvate improves recovery and detection of heat-injured C. perfringens.