Simango Clifford, Mwakurudza Silas
Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box A178, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2008 Jun 10;124(3):268-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2008.03.020. Epub 2008 Apr 1.
Clostridium difficile has been shown to be a nosocomial pathogen associated with diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis in hospitalised patients and the infection is believed to be acquired nosocomially. Community-acquired C. difficile-associated diarrhoea has also been reported. Recent studies have shown the occurrence of C. difficile in food animals which may act as a source of infection to humans. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of C. difficile in broiler chickens sold at market places in an urban area in Zimbabwe. Faeces of broiler chickens were collected from the cages at the market places and soils were collected from areas around the market places. The chicken faeces and soil samples were cultured for C. difficile. The C. difficile isolates were tested for toxins A or B production as well as for their susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs. C. difficile was isolated from 29.0% of 100 chicken faeces samples and 22.0% of 100 soil samples. Some of the C. difficile isolates from chickens (89.7%) and soils (95.5%) were toxigenic. All the isolates were susceptible to metronidazole, vancomycin, doxycycline, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. Over 70% of the isolates were susceptible to erythromycin, co-trimoxazole and ampicillin. They were all resistant to cefotaxime, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and nalidixic acid. The results of the present study suggest that broiler chickens sold at market places in the urban area are an important source of C. difficile, which may infect humans through consumption of chicken meat.
艰难梭菌已被证明是一种与住院患者腹泻和伪膜性结肠炎相关的医院病原体，并且这种感染被认为是在医院获得的。也有社区获得性艰难梭菌相关性腹泻的报道。最近的研究表明，食用动物中存在艰难梭菌，这可能是人类感染的一个来源。本研究的目的是确定在津巴布韦一个城市地区市场上销售的肉鸡中艰难梭菌的存在情况。从市场的笼子中收集肉鸡的粪便，并从市场周围地区收集土壤。对鸡肉粪便和土壤样本进行艰难梭菌培养。对艰难梭菌分离株进行毒素A或B产生情况以及对抗菌药物敏感性的检测。从100份鸡肉粪便样本中的29.0%和100份土壤样本中的22.0%中分离出艰难梭菌。一些从鸡（89.7%）和土壤（95.5%）中分离出的艰难梭菌分离株具有产毒能力。所有分离株对甲硝唑、万古霉素、强力霉素、氯霉素和四环素敏感。超过70%的分离株对红霉素、复方新诺明和氨苄青霉素敏感。它们对头孢噻肟、庆大霉素、环丙沙星、诺氟沙星和萘啶酸均耐药。本研究结果表明，在城市地区市场上销售的肉鸡是艰难梭菌的一个重要来源，可能通过食用鸡肉感染人类。
