Prevalence and Molecular Characteristics of Clostridium difficile in Retail Meats, Food-Producing and Companion Animals, and Humans in Minnesota

Abstract

Community-associated Clostridium difficile infection (CA-CDI) now accounts for approximately 50% of CDI cases in central Minnesota; animals and meat products are potential sources. From November 2011 to July 2013, we cultured retail meat products and fecal samples from food-producing and companion animals in central Minnesota for C. difficile by using standard methods. The resulting 51 C. difficile isolates, plus 30 archived local veterinary C. difficile isolates and 208 human CA-CDI case isolates from central Minnesota (from 2012) from the Minnesota Department of Health, were characterized molecularly, and source groups were compared using discriminant analysis. C. difficile was recovered from 0 (0%) of 342 retail meat samples and 51 (9%) of 559 animal fecal samples. Overall, the 81 animal source isolates and 208 human source isolates were highly diverse genetically. Molecular traits segregated extensively in relation to animal versus human origin. Discriminant analysis classified 95% of isolates correctly by source group; only five (2.5%) human source isolates were classified as animal source. These data do not support meat products or food-producing and companion animals as important sources of CA-CDI in the central Minnesota study region.

Clostridioides difficile infection and One Health: an equine perspective

“…The proportion of healthy adult horses that carry C. difficile appears to be much lower. Earlier small-scale investigations of C. difficile in the Northern hemisphere returned relatively low detection rates (0%-4%), (Madewell et al, 1995;Weese et al, 2001;Båverud et al, 2003), while a single preliminary Australian study failed to isolate C. difficile from healthy horses (n = 112) (Thean et al, 2011) This is in contrast to a larger study in Ontario in 2011 which returned an overall faecal prevalence of 7.6% in healthy adult racehorses (n = 540) and, more recently, smaller studies in Minnesota, USA (n = 50) and Italy (n = 24) which recorded a 14% and 25% prevalence of C. difficile respectively (Ossiprandi et al, 2010;Medina-Torres et al, 2011;Shaughnessy et al, 2018). Table 1 summarizes the prevalence of C. difficile identified in these key studies.…”

“…difficile from healthy horses ( n = 112) (Thean et al ., 2011 ) This is in contrast to a larger study in Ontario in 2011 which returned an overall faecal prevalence of 7.6% in healthy adult racehorses ( n = 540) and, more recently, smaller studies in Minnesota, USA ( n = 50) and Italy ( n = 24) which recorded a 14% and 25% prevalence of C . difficile respectively (Ossiprandi et al ., 2010 ; Medina‐Torres et al ., 2011 ; Shaughnessy et al ., 2018 ). Table 1 summarizes the prevalence of C .…”

Examining the Extent of Contamination, Antibiotic Resistance, and Genetic Diversity of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile Strains in Meat and Feces of Some Native Birds of Iran

“…These results indicate that the meat and feces of some birds collected in this study are contaminated with C. difficile. Different studies have been conducted on the prevalence of C. difficile infection in poultry [12,14,[18][19][20][21]. A study conducted in Isfahan and Khuzestan regions showed that the prevalence of C. difficile in beef, cow, sheep, goat, camel, and buffalo meat was 1.3% and 2.3%, respectively [22].…”

Novel and emerging sources of Clostridioides difficile infection

“…With high rates of carriage among livestock, it is not surprising that contamination of meat products with C . difficile has been reported, including pork, beef, poultry, and processed meats [31,32]. However, no foodborne outbreaks have been described, and molecular surveys show little to no overlap between meat-associated and human disease strains.…”