Community-acquired Clostridium difficile infection and Australian food animals
Michele M Squire A , Daniel R Knight A and Thomas V Riley A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Microbiology and Immunology
School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
The University of Western Australia
Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre
Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia
B Tel: +61 8 6383 4355, Fax: +61 8 9346 2912, Email: thomas.riley@uwa.edu.au
Microbiology Australia 36(3) 111-113 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA15040
Published: 6 August 2015
Abstract
Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic Gram positive spore-forming bacterium, the leading cause of infectious diarrhoea (C. difficile infection; CDI) in hospitalised humans. The assumption that CDI is primarily a hospital-acquired infection is being questioned. Community-acquired CDI (CA-CDI) is increasing1 particularly in groups previously considered at low risk2,3. In Australia, CA-CDI rates doubled during 2011 and increased by 24% between 2011 and 20124. Two potentially high-risk practices in Australian food animal husbandry may present a risk for CA-CDI: slaughtering of neonatal animals for food, and effluent recycling to agriculture.
References
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