High prevalence of clostridium difficile in home gardens in Western Australia

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Volume

87

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

9

PubMed ID

33097511

Publisher

American Society for Microbiology

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

35427

Comments

Shivaperumal, N., Chang, B. J., & Riley, T. V. (2020). High prevalence of clostridium difficile in home gardens in Western Australia. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 87(1). https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01572-20

Abstract

© 2020. All Rights Reserved. In recent years, community-associated Clostridium difficile infection (CACDI) has emerged as a significant health problem, accounting for ˜50% of all CDI cases. We hypothesized that the home garden environment could contribute to the dissemination of C. difficile spores in the community and investigated 23 homes in 22 suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. We identified a high prevalence of toxigenic C. difficile in this environment. In total, 97 samples consisting of soil (n = 48), compost (n = 15), manure (n = 12), and shoe sole swabs (n = 22) were collected. All samples were cultured anaerobically on C. difficile ChromID agar and enriched in brain heart infusion broth, and isolates were characterized by toxin gene PCR and PCR ribotyping. Two-thirds (67%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 57 to 76%) of home garden samples, including 79% (95% CI, 68 to 91%) of soil, 67% (95% CI, 43 to 90%) of compost, 83% (95% CI, 62% to 100%) of manure, and 32% (95% CI, 12 to 51%) of shoe sole samples, contained C. difficile. Of 87 isolates, 38% (95% CI, 28 to 48%) were toxigenic, and 26 PCR ribotypes (RTs), 5 of which were novel, were identified. The toxigenic C. difficile strain RT014/020 was the most prevalent RT. Interestingly, 19 esculin hydrolysis-negative strains giving white colonies were identified on C. difficile ChromID agar, 5 of which were novel toxigenic RTs that produced only toxin A. Clearly, there is the potential for transmission of C. difficile in the community due to the contamination of home gardens. Our findings highlight the importance of a “One Health” approach to dealing with CDI.

DOI

10.1128/AEM.01572-20

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