Investigation of Clostridium difficile interspecies relatedness using multilocus sequence typing, multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis and antimicrobial susceptibility testing

• Published in: The veterinary journal (1997) Vol. 206; no. 3; pp. 349 - 355
• Main Authors: Rodriguez, C., Avesani, V., Taminiau, B., Van Broeck, J., Brévers, B., Delmée, M., Daube, G.
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Cattle; Clostridium difficile; Clostridium difficile - classification; Clostridium difficile - genetics; Feces - microbiology; Humans; Life sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Minisatellite Repeats; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis; Médecine vétérinaire & santé animale; Phylogeny; Ribotyping; Sciences du vivant; Species Specificity; Swine; Veterinary medicine & animal health; Multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis; Animals; Multilocus sequence typing; Humans; Clostridium difficile
• ISSN: 1090-0233; 1532-2971; 1532-2971
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2015.09.001

•Combination of MLVA and MLST is a useful tool to study Clostridium difficile transmission.•Human and animal strains presented a similar susceptibility to antimicrobials.•There is high-level of genetic relatedness between isolates from diverse sources. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) and antimicrobial susceptibility were performed on 37 animal and human C. difficile isolates belonging to 15 different PCR-ribotypes in order to investigate the relatedness of human and animal isolates and to identify possible transmission routes. MLVA identified a total of 21 different types while MLST only distinguished 12 types. Identical C. difficile strains were detected in the same animal species for PCR-ribotypes 014, 078, UCL 16U and UCL 36, irrespective of their origin or the isolation date. Non clonal strains were found among different hosts; however, a high genetic association between pig and cattle isolates belonging to PCR-ribotype 078 was revealed. MLVA also showed genetic differences that clearly distinguished human from animal strains. For a given PCR-ribotype, human and animal strains presented a similar susceptibility to the antimicrobials tested. All strains were susceptible to vancomycin, metronidazole, chloramphenicol and rifampicin, while PCR-ribotypes 078, UCL 5a, UCL 36 and UCL 103 were associated with erythromycin resistance. The data suggest a wide dissemination of clones at hospitals and breeding-farms or a contamination at the slaughterhouse, but less probability of interspecies transmission. However, further highly discriminatory genotyping methods are necessary to elucidate interspecies and zoonotic transmission of C. difficile.