Clostridioides (Clostridium) Difficile in Food-Producing Animals, Horses and Household Pets: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile is ubiquitous in the environment and is also considered as a bacterium of great importance in diarrhea-associated disease for humans and different animal species. Food animals and household pets are frequently found positive for toxigenic C. difficile without exposing clinical signs of infection. Humans and animals share common C. difficile ribotypes (RTs) suggesting potential zoonotic transmission. However, the role of animals for the development of human infection due to C. difficile remains unclear. One major public health issue is the existence of asymptomatic animals that carry and shed the bacterium to the environment, and infect individuals or populations, directly or through the food chain. C. difficile ribotype 078 is frequently isolated from food animals and household pets as well as from their environment. Nevertheless, direct evidence for the transmission of this particular ribotype from animals to humans has never been established. This review will summarize the current available data on epidemiology, clinical presentations, risk factors and laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile infection in food animals and household pets, outline potential prevention and control strategies, and also describe the current evidence towards a zoonotic potential of C. difficile infection.

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

“…RT-078, the agriculture-associated ribotype, is among the ten most frequent C. difficile ribotypes isolated from CDI in western Europe [ 63 ]. This ribotype is frequently retrieved from younger people in severe cases of CDI occurring in the community [ 63 ], and it is described as the predominant ribotype in pigs, cattle and horses worldwide [ 64 ]. RT-078 has also been reported from poultry and dogs, even though in these species it is not considered as the predominant ribotype [ 62 , 65 , 66 , 67 ].…”

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

“…In our study, all but one of the C. difficile isolates belonged to the ST11 and RT033 predominated (84.1%). The predominance of RT033 in calves was also observed in Germany (57%) and Slovenia (75.5%) [ 9 , 12 ] and its presence in the gastrointestinal tract of calves is commonplace [ 31 , 32 , 35 ].…”

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile-associated diarrhea in equine in Minas Gerais, Brazil: clinical and microbiological characterization of six cases

“…Disruption of the gut microbiota by previous antibiotic therapy is a known risk factor for CDI in humans and animals, including equine (DIAB et al, 2013;RODRIGUEZ et al, 2016;KACHRIMANIDOU et al, 2019). Interestingly, except for azithromycin, all antimicrobials prescribed prior to the development of CDI in the animals studied are listed as the most common compounds associated with CDI in horses, including erythromycin, trimethoprim/sulfonamides, β-lactam antimicrobials (cephalosporins and penicillin), clindamycin, rifampicin, and gentamicin (DIAB et al, 2013;KACHRIMANIDOU et al, 2019;NIWA et al, 2013). Nevertheless, it should be remembered that theoretically any antimicrobial can cause CDI (WEESE et al, 2006).…”