Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 2, 3584 CN, The Netherlands.
Vet Microbiol. 2011 Apr 21;149(1-2):186-92. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2010.10.013. Epub 2010 Nov 4.
Clostridium difficile is recognized as an important cause of nosocomial diarrhoea in humans especially in association with administration of antibiotics. In pigs, C. difficile can cause neonatal enteritis and can be isolated from faeces from both diseased and healthy animals. The presented prospective study describes how soon C. difficile can be isolated from newborn piglets after normal parturition and how C. difficile spreads within a pig farm. Six sows, their farrowing crates and their litters at one farm were sampled until C. difficile was found in all piglets. Within 48 h after birth, all 71 piglets became positive for C. difficile (two piglets were already positive within 1h post partum), all sows became positive within 113 h after parturition and the farrowing crates were found intermittently positive. C. difficile could also be detected in air samples and in samples of teats of the sows. All isolates belonged to PCR ribotype 078. Twenty-one C. difficile ribotype 078 isolates, found at the farm, were further analyzed by MLVA (multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis) and belonged to one clonal complex, except one isolate. To be sure that piglets were not born already infected with C. difficile ribotype 078, 38 caesarean derived piglets were sampled immediately after surgery. All piglets tested negative at delivery and stayed negative for C. difficile ribotype 078 during the 21 days in which they were kept in sterile incubators. This study shows that C. difficile ribotype 078 spreads easily between sows, piglets and the environment. Vertical transmission of C. difficile ribotype 078 was not found and is very unlikely to occur.
艰难梭菌被认为是人类医院获得性腹泻的重要原因，尤其是与抗生素的使用有关。在猪中，艰难梭菌可引起新生仔猪肠炎，并可从患病和健康动物的粪便中分离出来。本前瞻性研究描述了艰难梭菌在正常分娩后多久能从新生仔猪中分离出来，以及艰难梭菌在一个猪场中是如何传播的。在一个猪场，对 6 头母猪及其分娩栏和仔猪进行了采样，直到在所有仔猪中都发现了艰难梭菌。在出生后 48 小时内，所有 71 头仔猪都对艰难梭菌呈阳性（有两头仔猪在产后 1 小时内就呈阳性），所有母猪在分娩后 113 小时内呈阳性，分娩栏呈间歇性阳性。在空气样本和母猪的乳头样本中也能检测到艰难梭菌。在该猪场发现的 21 株艰难梭菌 078 型 PCR 核糖体分型进一步通过 MLVA（多位点可变数目串联重复分析）进行分析，除了一株分离株外，均属于一个克隆复合体。为了确保仔猪不是出生时就感染了艰难梭菌 078 型，对 38 头剖腹产仔猪在手术后立即进行了采样。所有仔猪在分娩时均呈阴性，在无菌孵育箱中饲养的 21 天内也一直呈艰难梭菌 078 型阴性。本研究表明，艰难梭菌 078 型很容易在母猪、仔猪和环境之间传播。未发现艰难梭菌 078 型的垂直传播，而且这种情况极不可能发生。
