diff --git a/conf/autoload_configs/perl.conf.xml b/conf/autoload_configs/perl.conf.xml
index 83732890c6..b2435000ff 100644
--- a/conf/autoload_configs/perl.conf.xml
+++ b/conf/autoload_configs/perl.conf.xml
@@ -2,5 +2,15 @@
   <settings>
     <!--<param name="xml-handler-script" value="/tmp/xml.pl"/>-->
     <!--<param name="xml-handler-bindings" value="dialplan"/>-->
+
+    <!--
+	The following options identifies a perl script that is launched	
+	at startup and may live forever in the background.
+	You can define multiple lines, one for each script you 
+	need to run.
+    -->
+    <!--param name="startup-script" value="startup_script_1.pl"/-->
+    <!--param name="startup-script" value="startup_script_2.pl"/-->
+
   </settings>
 </configuration>
diff --git a/src/mod/languages/mod_perl/mod_perl.c b/src/mod/languages/mod_perl/mod_perl.c
index fa750f9d30..c68da54aef 100644
--- a/src/mod/languages/mod_perl/mod_perl.c
+++ b/src/mod/languages/mod_perl/mod_perl.c
@@ -450,6 +450,9 @@ static switch_status_t do_config(void)
 					switch_log_printf(SWITCH_CHANNEL_LOG, SWITCH_LOG_INFO, "binding '%s' to '%s'\n", globals.xml_handler, var);
 					switch_xml_bind_search_function(perl_fetch, switch_xml_parse_section_string(val), NULL);
 				}
+			} else if (!strcmp(var, "startup-script")) {
+				if ( val )
+					perl_thread(val);
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -469,7 +472,7 @@ SWITCH_MODULE_LOAD_FUNCTION(mod_perl_load)
 	globals.pool = pool;
 
 	if (!(my_perl = perl_alloc())) {
-		switch_log_printf(SWITCH_CHANNEL_LOG, SWITCH_LOG_ERROR, "Could not allocate perl intrepreter\n");
+		switch_log_printf(SWITCH_CHANNEL_LOG, SWITCH_LOG_ERROR, "Could not allocate perl interpreter\n");
 		return SWITCH_STATUS_MEMERR;
 	}
 	switch_log_printf(SWITCH_CHANNEL_LOG, SWITCH_LOG_INFO, "Allocated perl intrepreter.\n");