Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2013 Sep;79(18):5689-92. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01888-13. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
Recently, Clostridium difficile has been isolated from a wide variety of animals, particularly production animals, mainly cattle and pigs. Concurrently, the incidence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in humans has increased in the community, with some suggestions that food-borne transmission of C. difficile is occurring. Interestingly, sheep and lambs appear not to have been investigated for carriage/colonization with C. difficile. The aim of this project was to determine the prevalence of carriage of C. difficile in sheep and lambs in Australia by culturing fecal samples. A total of 371 sheep and lamb fecal samples were received in seven batches from three different geographic areas in eastern Australia and two in Western Australia. The overall rate of detection in sheep and lambs was low (4.0%); however, carriage/colonization in lambs (6.5%) was statistically significantly higher than that in sheep (0.6%) (P = 0.005). Seven distinct PCR ribotype patterns were observed, three of which were known international ribotypes (UK 056 [n = 1], UK 101 [n = 6], and UK 137 [n = 2]), while the remainder were unable to be matched with our available reference library. This low rate of carriage/colonization in Australian ovines suggests they are unlikely to be a major source/reservoir of human infections.
最近，艰难梭菌已从各种各样的动物中分离出来，特别是生产动物，主要是牛和猪。同时，社区中艰难梭菌感染（CDI）的发病率也在增加，有一些证据表明艰难梭菌可能通过食物传播。有趣的是，尚未对绵羊和羔羊进行艰难梭菌携带/定植的调查。本项目的目的是通过培养粪便样本来确定澳大利亚绵羊和羔羊中艰难梭菌携带的流行率。从澳大利亚东部的三个不同地理区域和西澳大利亚的两个区域共收到了 371 份绵羊和羔羊粪便样本。绵羊和羔羊的总体检出率较低（4.0%）；然而，羔羊（6.5%）的携带/定植率明显高于绵羊（0.6%）（P=0.005）。观察到了 7 种不同的 PCR 核糖体分型模式，其中 3 种是已知的国际核糖体分型（英国 056 [n=1]、英国 101 [n=6]和英国 137 [n=2]），其余的则无法与我们现有的参考文库匹配。澳大利亚绵羊的这种低携带/定植率表明，它们不太可能成为人类感染的主要来源/储存库。
