Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, P,O, Box: 166 Shahrekord, Iran.
BMC Public Health. 2014 Feb 5;14:119. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-119.
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. 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 retail raw beef, cow, sheep, goat, camel and buffalo meat in Iran.
From April to October 2012, a total of 660 raw meat samples from beef, cow, sheep, goat, camel and buffalo were purchased from 49 butcheries in Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces, Iran, and were evaluated for the presence of C. difficile using a method including selective enrichment in C. difficile broth, subsequent alcohol shock-treatment and plating onto C. difficile selective medium. C. difficile isolates were tested for the presence of toxin genes and were typed using PCR ribotyping.
In this study, 13 of 660 meat samples (2%) were contaminated with C. difficile. The highest prevalence of C. difficile was found in buffalo meat (9%), followed by goat meat (3.3%), beef meat (1.7%), cow (0.94%) and sheep meat (0.9%). Seven of the 13C. difficile strains (53.9%) were positive for tcdA, tcdB and cdtB toxin genes and were classified as ribotype 078. Four strains (30.8%) were positive tcdA, and tcdB, and one strain (7.7%) was possessed only tcdB. The remaining isolate was non-toxigenic. Susceptibilities of 13C. difficile isolates were determined for 11 antimicrobial drugs using the disk diffusion assay. Resistance to clindamycin, gentamycin, and nalidixic acid was the most common finding.
To our knowledge, the present study is the first report of the isolation of C. difficile from raw buffalo meat. This study indicates the potential importance of food, including buffalo meat, as a source of transmission of C. difficile to humans.
艰难梭菌已被证明是一种与医院获得性腹泻和伪膜性结肠炎相关的病原体，并且该感染被认为是在医院获得的。最近的研究表明，艰难梭菌存在于食用动物中，可能成为人类感染的来源。本研究旨在确定伊朗零售生牛肉、牛、羊、山羊、骆驼和水牛肉中艰难梭菌的发生情况。
2012 年 4 月至 10 月，从伊朗伊斯法罕省和胡齐斯坦省的 49 家肉铺购买了总计 660 份生牛肉、牛、羊、山羊、骆驼和水牛肉样本，使用包括在艰难梭菌肉汤中选择性富集、随后用酒精休克处理和在艰难梭菌选择性培养基上划线的方法评估这些样本中是否存在艰难梭菌。艰难梭菌分离株被检测是否存在毒素基因，并通过 PCR 核糖体分型进行分型。
在本研究中，660 个肉样本中有 13 个（2%）受到艰难梭菌污染。艰难梭菌的最高检出率出现在水牛肉中（9%），其次是山羊肉（3.3%）、牛肉（1.7%）、牛（0.94%）和羊肉（0.9%）。13 株艰难梭菌中有 7 株（53.9%）为 tcdA、tcdB 和 cdtB 毒素基因阳性，被分类为 078 型核糖体。4 株（30.8%）为 tcdA 和 tcdB 阳性，1 株（7.7%）仅为 tcdB 阳性。其余分离株为非产毒型。使用纸片扩散法测定 13 株艰难梭菌分离株对 11 种抗菌药物的敏感性。最常见的耐药情况为克林霉素、庆大霉素和奈啶酸。
据我们所知，本研究首次从生水牛肉中分离出艰难梭菌。本研究表明，包括水牛肉在内的食物可能是艰难梭菌传播给人类的一个重要来源。
