Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus)
ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile is an important cause of enteric infections in humans. Recently, concerns have been raised regarding whether animals could be a source of C. difficile spores. Although colonization has been identified in a number of domestic species, the ability of commensal pests to s...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.03609-13 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.03609-13 |
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crasmicro:10.1128/aem.03609-13 2024-09-15T18:32:06+00:00 Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) Himsworth, Chelsea G. Patrick, David M. Mak, Sunny Jardine, Claire M. Tang, Patrick Weese, J. Scott 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.03609-13 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.03609-13 en eng American Society for Microbiology https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license Applied and Environmental Microbiology volume 80, issue 4, page 1299-1305 ISSN 0099-2240 1098-5336 journal-article 2014 crasmicro https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.03609-13 2024-07-29T04:09:18Z ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile is an important cause of enteric infections in humans. Recently, concerns have been raised regarding whether animals could be a source of C. difficile spores. Although colonization has been identified in a number of domestic species, the ability of commensal pests to serve as a reservoir for C. difficile has not been well investigated. The objective of this study was to determine whether urban rats ( Rattus spp.) from Vancouver, Canada, carry C. difficile . Clostridium difficile was isolated from the colon contents of trapped rats and was characterized using ribotyping, toxinotyping, and toxin gene identification. Generalized linear mixed models and spatial analysis were used to characterize the ecology of C. difficile in rats. Clostridium difficile was isolated from 95 of 724 (13.1%) rats, although prevalence differed from 0% to 46.7% among city blocks. The odds of being C. difficile positive decreased with increasing weight (odds ratio [OR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.87), suggesting that carriage is more common in younger animals. The strains isolated included 9 ribotypes that matched recognized international designations, 5 identified by our laboratory in previous studies, and 21 “novel” ribotypes. Some strains were clustered geographically; however, the majority were dispersed throughout the study area, supporting environmental sources of exposure and widespread environmental contamination with a variety of C. difficile strains. Given that urban rats are the source of a number of other pathogens responsible for human morbidity and mortality, the potential for rats to be a source of C. difficile for humans deserves further consideration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rattus rattus ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) Applied and Environmental Microbiology 80 4 1299 1305 |
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ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) |
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crasmicro |
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English |
description |
ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile is an important cause of enteric infections in humans. Recently, concerns have been raised regarding whether animals could be a source of C. difficile spores. Although colonization has been identified in a number of domestic species, the ability of commensal pests to serve as a reservoir for C. difficile has not been well investigated. The objective of this study was to determine whether urban rats ( Rattus spp.) from Vancouver, Canada, carry C. difficile . Clostridium difficile was isolated from the colon contents of trapped rats and was characterized using ribotyping, toxinotyping, and toxin gene identification. Generalized linear mixed models and spatial analysis were used to characterize the ecology of C. difficile in rats. Clostridium difficile was isolated from 95 of 724 (13.1%) rats, although prevalence differed from 0% to 46.7% among city blocks. The odds of being C. difficile positive decreased with increasing weight (odds ratio [OR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.87), suggesting that carriage is more common in younger animals. The strains isolated included 9 ribotypes that matched recognized international designations, 5 identified by our laboratory in previous studies, and 21 “novel” ribotypes. Some strains were clustered geographically; however, the majority were dispersed throughout the study area, supporting environmental sources of exposure and widespread environmental contamination with a variety of C. difficile strains. Given that urban rats are the source of a number of other pathogens responsible for human morbidity and mortality, the potential for rats to be a source of C. difficile for humans deserves further consideration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Himsworth, Chelsea G. Patrick, David M. Mak, Sunny Jardine, Claire M. Tang, Patrick Weese, J. Scott |
spellingShingle |
Himsworth, Chelsea G. Patrick, David M. Mak, Sunny Jardine, Claire M. Tang, Patrick Weese, J. Scott Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
author_facet |
Himsworth, Chelsea G. Patrick, David M. Mak, Sunny Jardine, Claire M. Tang, Patrick Weese, J. Scott |
author_sort |
Himsworth, Chelsea G. |
title |
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
title_short |
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
title_full |
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
title_fullStr |
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by Wild Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Black Rats (Rattus rattus) |
title_sort |
carriage of clostridium difficile by wild urban norway rats (rattus norvegicus) and black rats (rattus rattus) |
publisher |
American Society for Microbiology |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.03609-13 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.03609-13 |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Applied and Environmental Microbiology volume 80, issue 4, page 1299-1305 ISSN 0099-2240 1098-5336 |
op_rights |
https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.03609-13 |
container_title |
Applied and Environmental Microbiology |
container_volume |
80 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1299 |
op_container_end_page |
1305 |
_version_ |
1810473851128119296 |