The present invention discloses attenuated Clostridium perfringens organisms that express a substantially nontoxic alpha-toxin. The expressed alpha-toxin is a deletion mutein that relative to the alpha-toxin of the mature alpha-toxin of Clostridium perfringens strain 13, is missing at least nine consecutive amino acid residues including His68. The present invention also discloses attenuated organisms that encode the muteins, as well as the use of such attenuated organisms as vaccines.