Occurrence of Zoonotic Clostridia and Yersinia in Healthy Cattle

Abstract

Zoonotic pathogens are a frequent cause of disease worldwide. This study was designed to determine the occurrence of Clostridium difficile, Clostridium botulinum, and Yersinia enterocolitica in cattle in southern Bavaria, Germany. The study population included 49 farms; 34 were dairy farms (30 also fattening beef cattle) and 15 were solely beef cattle farms. Fecal and dust samples were collected from summer 2011 to summer 2012 and analyzed using a combination of enrichment procedures and real-time PCR. For the detection of C. difficile, samples were screened for the presence of the tpi gene and toxin genes tcdA, tcdB, and cdtA. Samples also were screened for genes for C. botulinum toxins A through F and for the ail gene of Y. enterocolitica. Of 506 samples, C. difficile genes were found in 29 samples (5.7%): 25 samples from dairy farms and 4 samples from beef cattle farms. Toxin genes were identified in 17 samples, with toxigenic profiles of A(+)B(+)CDT(-), A(+)B(-)CDT(+), and A(+)B(+)CDT(+). C. botulinum toxin genes were not detected in fecal samples from cattle, but the gene for toxin B was detected in 1 (0.8%) of 125 dust samples. Y. enterocolitica genes were found in 6 (1.6%) of 382 fecal samples from three dairy farms and one beef cattle farm. This study revealed that C. difficile and Y. enterocolitica are rare on cattle farms in Bavaria, Germany. In contrast to results of previous studies, C. botulinum was not detected in fecal samples but was found very rarely in dust samples from the cattle environment.

Occurrence of human pathogenicClostridium botulinumamong healthy dairy animals: an emerging public health hazard

“…The contamination of milk and milk products with this organism usually occurs during milking and processing of milk and so, dairy animals and dairy environment are incriminated as the major source of milk contamination. 18 The results of the current study revealed a high prevalence rate of C. botulinum among dairy animals (18.7%), a result which is higher than that obtained by Schmid et al 19 who failed to detect C. botulinum types (A-F) in the feces of apparently healthy dairy cattle after examination of samples from 34 dairy cattle farms. Additionally in the present study, human pathogenic strains of C. botulinum were recovered from the feces of all examined dairy animal species (cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goats) with an overall prevalence of 3%.…”

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

“…Thitaram et al [46] found a slightly lower prevalence in beef cattle. In contrast, calves from dairy farms in Germany appeared significantly more likely to harbor C. difficile than beef ones [47].…”

“…Farms were categorised according to their management and production target in dairy (47) and beef farms (54). The association between C. difficile and the following hypothetical risk factors was tested for dairy and beef breeding system, herd size and antimicrobial prescription.…”

Fate of Clostridium botulinum and incidence of pathogenic clostridia in biogas processes

“…At second glance, other studies did also not find Cl botulinum (Bagge et al 2010;Schmid et al 2013) in cattle faeces or found a considerably minor incidence than Dahlenborg et al (2001Dahlenborg et al ( , 2003Notermans et al 1985). Besides, it should be considered that Dahlenborg et al (2001Dahlenborg et al ( , 2003 analysed fresh faeces from slaughtered pigs and cattle and found very low spore loadings.…”