Abstract :
[en] Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium that remains the main cause of nosocomial diarrhoea in humans after use of antibiotics. C. difficile has also been described in other environments outside of hospitals, such as soil, river and seawater samples (Pasquale et al., 2011) and in animals, in which it can also cause enteric disease (Songer and Anderson, 2006). The possibility of transmission of C. difficile pathogenic isolates between animals, environments and humans has been suggested (Janezic et al., 2012).
In recent years, the interest in C. difficile in food and in food animals has increased, leading to studying animals as a possible reservoir and a potential risk for food borne infections linked to C. difficile. Studies in various countries have determined differences in the prevalence of C. difficile in animals just before slaughter (Houser et al., 2012; Rodriguez et al., 2012) as well as in retail meat (Houser et al., 2012). In addition, many types, including PCR-ribotype 078, are present in humans, animals and meat (Janezic et al.; Weese et al., 2009).
The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of C. difficile at the slaughterhouse and in retail meat. Intestinal and carcass samples were collected from pigs and cattle at a single slaughterhouse. Raw meat (beef and pork) was obtained from the retail trade. C. difficile was isolated in 1% and 9.9% of the pig and cattle intestinal contents and in 7.9% and 7% of cattle and pig carcass samples respectively. From retail meat, C. difficile was recovered from 2.3% of the beef samples and from 4.7% of the pork samples. A total of 21 different PCR-ribotypes were identified with a large percentage of types 078 and 014. This study confirms that animals are carriers of C. difficile at slaughter, and that carcass contamination occurs inside the slaughterhouse. Furthermore the results obtained also reveal the presence of toxigenic C. difficile in retail meat in Belgium with a predominance of isolates correlated with the PCR-ribotypes involved in human C. difficile infections.
