[en] Clostridium difficile has been isolated from food animals and meat, specially ground pork and ground beef. The recovered isolates were closely related to C. difficile human strains, indicating that animals and food are possible transmission routes of human C. difficile infection. The main objective of this study was to characterize C. difficile isolates from retail meat and to compare with human isolates recovered from hospital patients in Belgium. Raw meat (beef and pork) was obtained from the retail trade. C. difficile was recovered from 2.3% of the beef samples and from 4.7% of the pork samples. A total of 4 different PCR-ribotypes were identified with a large percentage of types 078 and 014. Resistance to moxifloxacin and erythromycin was detected. The multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) analysis showed that meat and human isolates cluster in the same lineage. This study reveals the presence of toxigenic C. difficile in retail meat in Belgium with predominance PCR-ribotypes 078 and 014, which are among the four most prevalent ribotypes of C. difficile isolated from humans in Europe.
Disciplines :
Microbiology
Author, co-author :
Rodriguez Diaz, Cristina ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de sciences des denrées alimentaires (DDA) > Technologie des denrées alimentaires
Taminiau, Bernard ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de sciences des denrées alimentaires (DDA) > Microbiologie des denrées alimentaires
Avesani, Véronique; Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels > Microbiology Unit
Van Broeck, Johan; Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels > Microbiology Unit
Delmée, Michel; Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels > Microbiology Unit
Daube, Georges ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de sciences des denrées alimentaires (DDA) > Microbiologie des denrées alimentaires
Language :
English
Title :
Multilocus sequence typing analysis and antibiotic resistance of Clostridium difficile strains isolated from retail meat and humans in Belgium
Publication date :
September 2014
Journal title :
Food Microbiology
ISSN :
0740-0020
eISSN :
1095-9998
Publisher :
Elsevier, London, United Kingdom
Volume :
42
Pages :
166-171
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
FPS Health Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment
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