引用

艰难梭菌是一种肠道病原体，历史上已知可引起人类医院相关(HA)感染。人类CDI的一个主要风险因素是抗生素的使用，因为它改变了肠道微生物群，并且失去了对艰难梭菌的定植抗性。近年来，社区相关(CA)-C有所增加。艰难梭菌感染没有与HA-CDI相同的危险因素。CA-CDI的潜在来源已经被提出，包括动物、食物、水和环境，但这些来源仍然缺乏研究。在这里，我们定义了在不同的伴侣动物(犬、猫和马)中发现的艰难梭菌菌株的患病率，以调查潜在的人畜共患联系。艰难梭菌菌株经毒素基因谱、荧光PCR核糖体分型和抗菌药敏试验鉴定。对动物粪便进行16s rRNA基因测序，以研究艰难梭菌与不同宿主肠道菌群之间的关系。在这里，我们发现艰难梭菌从20.9%的样本(42/201)中被回收，其中包括33只犬，2只猫和7只马。超过69%(29/42)的分离株是产毒的，属于14种不同的核糖型，人类HA-和CA-CDI病例重叠。 The presence of C. difficile results in a shift in the fecal microbial community structure in both canines and equines. Commensal Clostridia C. hiranonis was negatively associated with C. difficile in canines. Further experimentation showed a clear antagonistic relationship between the two strains in vitro, suggesting that commensal Clostridia might play a role in colonization resistance against C. difficile in different hosts. Conclusions In this study we investigated a potentially important source of C. difficile transmission: the companion animal population. C. difficile carriage was common in dogs, cats, and horses. C. difficile isolates from companion animals included many of the same ribotypes known to cause HA- and CA-CDI in humans, and had similar antimicrobial resistance profiles as those isolated from human populations. These data contribute to our understanding of non-hospital exposure to C. difficile in the human population and suggest new avenues for reducing C. difficile prevalence in companion animals and, perhaps, thereby reducing CA-CDI in humans.