Clostridium difficile in Dutch animals: their presence, characteristics and similarities with human isolates

Abstract

The presence and characteristics of Clostridium difficile were investigated in 839 faecal samples from seven different animal species in the Netherlands. The number of positive samples ranged from 3.4% (cattle) to 25.0% (dogs). Twenty-two different PCR ribotypes were identified. Among 96 isolates, 53% harboured toxin genes. All C. difficile isolates from pigs, cattle and poultry were toxinogenic, whereas the majority of isolates from pet animals consisted of non-toxinogenic PCR ribotypes 010 and 039. Ribotype 012 was most prevalent in cattle and ribotype 078 in pigs. No predominant ribotypes were present in horse and poultry samples. Overall, PCR ribotypes 012, 014 and 078 were the most frequently recovered toxinogenic ribotypes from animal samples. Comparison with human isolates from the Dutch Reference Laboratory for C. difficile at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) showed that these types were also recovered from human hospitalized patients in 2009/2010, encompassing 0.8%, 11.4% and 9.8% of all isolates, respectively. Application of multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis indicated a genotypic relation of animal and human ribotype 078 strains, but a clear genotypic distinction for ribotypes 012 and 014. We conclude that toxinogenic C. difficile PCR ribotypes found in animals correspond to PCR ribotypes associated with human disease in hospitalized patients in the Netherlands. Contrary to PCR ribotype 078, significant genetic differences were observed between animal and human PCR ribotype 012 and 014 isolates.

Community-acquired Clostridium difficile infection and Australian food animals

“…These rates are higher than that reported in major pork-producing countries [30][31][32] . RT 078 has not been isolated from Australian piglets.…”

Toxin-Producing Clostridium difficile Strains as Long-Term Gut Colonizers in Healthy Infants

“…The 014 strains were almost exclusively acquired after 2 months of age, indicating acquisition occurred outside the hospital. Ribotype 014 strains may be acquired from several sources, as this ribotype is found in both animals and humans, and it is also one of the most prevalent ribotypes in environmental samples (26,27). Interestingly, ribotype 014 strains tended to be more common (P ϭ 0.066) among infants delivered by caesarean section than among vaginally delivered infants.…”

Clostridium difficile in Food and Animals: A Comprehensive Review

“…While signs of disease could range from mild self-limiting diarrhoea to chronic or fatal diarrhoea (Berry and Levett 1986), the relevance of the bacterium in small veterinary clinics is still uncertain (Weese 2011;Busch et al 2014). Different other studies have associated the presence of C. difficile in faeces with diarrhoea in dogs and cats (Weese et al 2001a;2001b;Weese and Armstrong 2003;Koene et al 2012;Wetterwik et al 2013). However, dogs can also be healthy carriers of C. difficile strains belonging to human epidemic PCR-ribotypes (Schneeberg et al 2012;Silva et al 2013b;Spigaglia et al 2015), with a high colonisation in the first period of live (Perrin et al 1993;Á lvarez-Pérez et al 2015).…”

“…Marsh et al (2010) used multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) to show that toxinotype V (REA group BK) human and animal isolates were highly related but differentiated. In another study conducted in the Netherlands (Koene et al 2012), faecal samples from healthy and diarrhoeic animals were compared with human strains isolated from patients with diarrhoea and hospitalised patients. MLVA analysis showed a genotypic correlation between animal and human PCR-ribotype 078, but a distinction between human and animal PCR-ribotypes 012 and 014.…”