Quantification of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile in feces of calves of different age and determination of predominant Clostridioides difficile ribotype 033 relatedness and transmission between family dairy farms using multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis

Abstract

BackgroundCommunity acquired Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection (CA-CDI) is a significant health problem in human and veterinary medicine. Animals are often considered as potential reservoirs for CA-CDI. In Europe, family farming is the most predominant farming operation, with a complex interaction between animals and the community. Therefore, it is pertinent to evaluate transmission patterns of C. difficile on such prominent European farming model.Fecal samples from calves (n = 2442) were collected biweekly over a period of one year on 20 mid-size family dairy farms. Environmental samples (n = 475) were collected in a three month interval. Clostridioides difficile was detected using qPCR in 243 fecal samples (243/2442); positive samples were then quantified. Association between prevalence/load of C. difficile and age of the calves was estimated with logistic regression model. Most common C. difficile isolate from calves (n = 76) and the environment (n = 14) was C. difficile ribotype 033, which was further analyzed using multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) to assess intra- and between-farm relatedness.ResultsClostridioides difficile was detected in feces of calves less than 24 h old. Results showed a non-linear statistically significant decrease in shedding load of C. difficile with age (P < 0.0001). A nonlinear relationship was also established between the number of calves and the farm C. difficile prevalence, whereas the prevalence of C. difficile ribotype 033 increased linearly with the number of calves. MLVA revealed close intra-farm relatedness among C. difficile ribotypes 033. It also revealed that the between-farms close relatedness of C. difficile ribotypes 033 can be a direct result of farm to farm trade of calves.ConclusionsImplementation of better hygiene and management measures on farms may help decrease the risk of spreading CA-CDI between animals and the community. Trading calves older than 3 weeks would decrease the possibility C. difficile dissemination in the community because of lower prevalence and lower load of C. difficile in feces.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1616-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Developing Gut Microbiota Exerts Colonisation Resistance to Clostridium (syn. Clostridioides) difficile in Piglets

“…As the piglets aged, the concentration, as well as the prevalence of C. difficile -positive piglets, gradually decreased and, at the same time, the microbial diversity increased. Similarly, a decrease in the shedding load of C. difficile with age could be observed in calves [31]. We also found that a decrease in the C. difficile level was inversely associated with microbial diversity indices in suckling piglets.…”

The Colonisation of Calves in Czech Large-Scale Dairy Farms by Clonally-Related Clostridioides difficile of the Sequence Type 11 Represented by Ribotypes 033 and 126

“…There were no records on the transport of animals between the farms in the study. Intra-farm relatedness of RT033 C. difficile isolates was also observed in the study of Bandelj et al [ 37 ]. Clonal groups of ST 11 C. diffcile isolates from different states, countries and continents were also identified by core genome single nucleotide variant analysis suggesting possible zoonotic/anthroponic transmission [ 15 ].…”

Clostridioides difficile in Calves in Central Italy: Prevalence, Molecular Typing, Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Association with Antibiotic Administration

“…Moreover, faecal samples were collected from the barn of each herd and not from each calf. As a result, the main limitation of the study is the impossibility to analyse prevalence within the herd as well as the age as the recognised main risk factor [35]. Furthermore, we cannot exclude that recontamination from the farm environment might have occurred.…”