Data from a survey of Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile shedding by dogs and cats in the Madrid region (Spain), including phenotypic and genetic characteristics of recovered isolates.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Alvarez-Perez S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5537374 | biostudies-other | 2017 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:BackgroundUp to 60% of foals develop diarrhea within 6 months after birth. Preventive measures are limited but potentially probiotics could be used.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of a newly designed probiotic on the incidence of foal diarrhea in a randomized field trial.AnimalsSeventy-two healthy neonatal foals.MethodsRandomized, placebo-controlled field trial. Foals were administered a placebo or probiotic for 3 weeks and monitored for an additional week. A total of 3 fecal samples were taken from each foal at biweekly intervals. Statistical modeling was applied for comparison of incidence and duration of diarrhea and fecal shedding of Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile between treatment and age groups.ResultsThe overall incidence of diarrhea was 41 of 72 (59%) and did not differ (P = 0.37) between treatment groups. Foals treated with probiotics were more likely to develop diarrhea requiring veterinary intervention (P = 0.007). Age had a significant effect on incidence of diarrhea (P < 0.001); foals 8-15 days old having the highest probability of developing diarrhea. Duration of diarrhea and soft feces were not significantly different between groups. The prevalence of C. perfringens shedding was 55% with no difference between treatment groups (P = 0.23). The prevalence of C. difficile shedding was 11%.Conclusion and clinical importanceThere was no benefit of administering a 3-week course of probiotics, but potential adverse effects were noted. Whether the probiotics lacked a clinical effect, or the choice of strains or dose was inadequate, is unknown. Clostridial shedding was not influenced by probiotics despite in vitro activity of probiotics.
| S-EPMC4895414 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The present study aimed to explore the motivations of Brazilian dog owners and their knowledge about the risks related to raw meat-based diets (RMBD) as well as to evaluate important enteropathogens such as Salmonella spp., C. perfringens, and C. difficile, in feces of dogs fed different diets. The majority of the pet owners (69.3%) reported to have chosen this diet for their dogs, considering it to be more "natural". A large number of owners declared that RMBD do not pose health risks for their animals (87.9%) or humans (98.8%), even though almost one third of the respondents (34.8%) declared having at least one individual at high risk of infection in contact with RMBD-fed dogs. Stool samples from 46 RMBD-fed dogs and 192 dogs fed commercial dry feed were collected. The present study revealed that dogs fed raw meat diets were almost 30 times more likely to be positive for Salmonella spp. than dogs on a conventional diet. Some of the serovars detected were commonly associated with human salmonellosis, such as S. Typhimurium and S. Saintpaul, and were multidrug resistant. RMBD-fed dogs were more likely to be positive for C. perfringens type A (p = 0.008) and one C. perfringens type F was isolated from these animals. Two toxigenic strains (4.3%) of C. difficile were isolated only from raw meat-fed dogs, all of which were under antibiotic therapy. These toxigenic C. difficile isolates were classified as RT106/ST54 and RT600/ST149, previously associated with infection in dogs and humans. The present work revealed that the owners have a tendency to ignore or are unaware of the risks associated with raw meat diets for dogs. Also, the higher fecal shedding of important enteropathogens in dogs fed RMBD suggests that this diet poses a risk for the animals and the people in contact with them.
| S-EPMC7156072 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of Clostridioides (previously Clostridium) difficile and Clostridium perfringens in the feces of diarrheic and non-diarrheic dogs. Also, the presence of other common canine enteropathogens was examined. Toxigenic C. difficile and C. perfringens positive for the NetF-encoding gene (netF) were detected in 11 (11.9%) and seven (7.6%) diarrheic dogs, respectively. Three dogs were diagnosed simultaneously with toxigenic C. difficile and netF-positive C. perfringens. Among other enteropathogens, Giardia sp. was the most common agent detected in dogs positive for toxigenic C. difficile or netF-positive C. perfringens. The results suggest that C. difficile and C. perfringens occur more frequently as a primary cause of diarrhea.
| S-EPMC7111177 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDifferent species of apicomplexan protozoans of the genera Hepatozoon and Cytauxzoon can infect domestic cats, but their epidemiology and clinical relevance are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to assess the molecular prevalence of Hepatozoon spp. and Cytauxzoon spp. and to identify associated risk factors and clinical and laboratory abnormalities in a population of cats from Madrid, Spain.MethodsSix hundred and forty-four client-owned and stray cats from Madrid, Spain, were included in this study. DNA samples were analyzed by two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to detect a partial sequence of the 18S rRNA gene of Hepatozoon spp. and Cytauxzoon spp. In order to evaluate possible associations between infection by these protozoans and epidemiological or clinical parameters, data were collected related to: the season of sample collection, age, gender, spayed/neutered status, breed, living area, lifestyle, outdoor access, contact with other animals, prey on wild animals, history of tick or flea infestation, travel history, ectoparasiticide treatment, previous blood transfusion, previous tetracycline administration in the last 60 days, Feline Leukemia virus (FeLV) and Feline Immunodeficiency virus (FIV) status, positivity to other vector-borne diseases, the presence or absence of clinical signs and hematological or biochemical alterations.ResultsDNA of Hepatozoon spp. and Cytauxzoon sp. was amplified from the blood of 10 (1.6%) and 8 (1.2%) cats, respectively. Previous treatment with tetracyclines in the last 60 days, previous administration of blood transfusion, a decrease in haematocrit and an increase in creatinine were associated with Hepatozoon spp. infection. Cytauxzoon sp. infection was more frequent in samples collected during the winter months and in cats living in rural areas. This infection was associated with a FIV-positive status. Some of the cats that were positive for Hepatozoon spp. or Cytauxzoon sp. had been exposed to other vector-borne pathogens, such as Ehrlichia canis and Bartonella henselae.ConclusionsOur results indicate that cats from Madrid, central Spain, are infected with Hepatozoon spp. and Cytauxzoon sp., although with a low prevalence. Further studies are needed to determine the virulence of these agents in Spanish cats.
| S-EPMC5346831 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The present study aimed to determine the occurrence, genotypes, and antimicrobial resistance of Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) in camel minced meat samples collected from small butcher shops and supermarkets in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Saudi Arabia. A total of 100 camel minced meat samples were randomly collected from small butcher's shops (n = 50) and supermarkets (n = 50) in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Saudi Arabia. C. perfringens and C. difficile were isolated and identified using the VITEK-2 compact system and 16S rRNA gene amplification. Genotypes, toxin genes, and antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates were determined. Moreover, ELISA was used to detect C. perfringens and C. difficile toxins. C. perfringens and C. difficile were isolated from 14% and 4% of the tested minced meat samples, respectively. Out of the 14 C. perfringens isolates, type A (64.3%), type B (7.1%), type C (21.5%), and type D (7.1%) were detected. However, out of the four C. difficile isolates, three (75%) were type A+B+ and one (25%) was type A-B+. None of the C. perfringens or C. difficile toxins were identified using ELISA. C. perfringens and C. difficile isolates exhibited a high rate of resistance to tetracycline (56% and 75%, respectively). However, all isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanate. Multidrug resistance was observed in three (21.4%) C. perfringens and one (25%) C. difficile isolates. In conclusion, camel minced meat was contaminated with C. perfringens and C. difficile, which present a potential risk of food poisoning. The majority of the isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial, and some isolates were multidrug-resistant. Therefore, food safety standards and frequent inspections of abattoirs, small butcher shops, and supermarkets should be enforced.
| S-EPMC8708398 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Leptospirosis is an important worldwide zoonosis. This disease is caused by pathogenic species of the genus Leptospira which are maintained in the environment via chronic renal infection of carrier animals which can be asymptomatic excretors of the organisms in their urines and become a source of infection for humans and other hosts. The prevalence of animal leptospirosis in Algiers, Algeria, is unknown.Real-time PCR and standard PCR and sequencing were used to detect pathogenic Leptospira organisms in the urines of stray dogs and cats in Algiers. In the presence of appropriate controls, none of the 107 cat urine samples were positive while 5/104 (4.8%) canine urine samples (asymptomatic mixed-breed dogs, three females and two males) were positive in two real-time PCR assays targeting the rrs and hsp genes. The positivity of these samples was confirmed by partial PCR-sequencing of the rpoB gene which yielded 100% sequence similarity with Leptospira interrogans reference sequence. In this study, L. interrogans prevalence was significantly higher in dogs aged < one year (16.46% - 29.41%) than in adults (0%) (P value = 0.0001) and then in the overall dog population (2.68% - 4.8%) (P = 0.0007).These results suggest that dogs are maintenance hosts for zoonotic leptospirosis in Algiers, Algeria. To face this situation, effective canine vaccination strategies and raising public health awareness are mandatory. Further investigations incorporating a larger sample in more localities will be undertaken to document the epidemiology of urban animal leptospirosis in Algeria at large.
| S-EPMC5955589 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The pathogenic Clostridioides difficile and Clostridium perfringens are responsible for many health care-associated infections as well as systemic and enteric diseases. Therefore, they represent a major health threat to both humans and animals. Concerns regarding increasing antibiotic resistance (related to C. difficile and C. perfringens) have caused a surge in the pursual of novel strategies that effectively combat pathogenic infections, including those caused by both pathogenic species. The ban on antibiotic growth promoters in the poultry industry has added to the urgency of finding novel antimicrobial therapeutics for C. perfringens. These efforts have resulted in various therapeutics, of which bacteriophages (in short, phages) show much promise, as evidenced by the Eliava Phage Therapy Center in Tbilisi, Georgia (https://eptc.ge/). Bacteriophages are a type of virus that infect bacteria. In this review, the (clinical) impact of clostridium infections in intestinal diseases is recapitulated, followed by an analysis of the current knowledge and applicability of bacteriophages and phage-derived endolysins in this disease indication. Limitations of phage and phage endolysin therapy were identified and require considerations. These include phage stability in the gastrointestinal tract, influence on gut microbiota structure/function, phage resistance development, limited host range for specific pathogenic strains, phage involvement in horizontal gene transfer, and-for phage endolysins-endolysin resistance, -safety, and -immunogenicity. Methods to optimize features of these therapeutic modalities, such as mutagenesis and fusion proteins, are also addressed. The future success of phage and endolysin therapies require reliable clinical trial data for phage(-derived) products. Meanwhile, additional research efforts are essential to expand the potential of exploiting phages and their endolysins for mitigating the severe diseases caused by C. difficile and C. perfringens.
| S-EPMC9234517 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundClostridium difficile infection (CDI) is recognised as an emerging disease in both humans and some animal species. During the past few years, insights into human CDI epidemiology changed and C. difficile is also considered as an emerging community-acquired pathogen. Certain ribotypes (RT) are possibly associated with zoonotic transmission. The objective of this study was to assess the presence of C. difficile in a population of pets and to characterise the isolates.ResultsFaecal samples from a total of 90 diarrhoeic dogs and 24 from exotic animal species (both diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic) were analysed. Clostridium difficile was isolated from 6 (6.7%) dogs and one reptile sample (4.2%). Four (66.7%) of the six dog strains were capable of producing toxins. Four known different RTs were detected in dogs (010, 014, 123 and 358) and a new one was found in a faecal sample of an exotic animal. This new RT isolate was negative for all toxin genes tested and belonged to sequence type 347 which has been proposed as a Clade-III member. Importantly, two dog strains showed a stable resistance to metronidazole (initial MIC values: 128 and 48 μg/ml).ConclusionsThe results obtained in this study suggest the implementation of antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance programs to assess the prevalence of metronidazole resistance in dogs; molecular studies to elucidate C. difficile metronidazole resistance mechanisms are warranted. Based on the similarity between the ribotypes observed in dogs and those described in humans, the zoonotic transmission should be further explored. Furthermore, exotic animals have shown to harbor uncommon C. difficile strains which require further genomic studies.
| S-EPMC5845233 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Clostridium difficile is a common cause of health-care acquired diarrhea, resulting in a spectrum of disease from mild diarrhea to life-threatening illness. Sixty Lactobacillus strains were screened for anti-C. difficile activity using a co-culture method. Based on their ability to inhibit C. difficile, L. gasseri APC 678 and L. rhamnosus DPC 6111 were selected for study in a murine model of C. difficile infection. L. gasseri ATCC 33323, was included as a control. It was established that, relative to control mice not fed Lactobacillus, feeding with L. gasseri APC 678 resulted in a significant reduction by day 7 (8-fold, p = 0.017) of viable C. difficile VPI 10463 in the feces of mice. In contrast, neither L. rhamnosus DPC 6111 nor L. gasseri ATCC 33323 significantly reduced fecal C. difficile shedding. Sequencing of the cecal microbiota showed that in mice fed L. gasseri APC 678 there was a significant increase in bacterial diversity across a number of indices when compared to the control or other Lactobacillus-fed groups. There was no significant change in the relative abundance of Firmicutes or Bacteroidetes in the group fed L. gasseri APC 678 relative to the control, while the groups fed L. rhamnosus DPC 6111 or L. gasseri ATCC 33323 showed a significant decrease in the relative abundance of Firmicutes (p = 0.002 and p = 0.019, respectively) and a significant increase in Bacteroidetes (p = 0.002 and p = 0.023, respectively). These results highlight the potential of L. gasseri APC 678 as a live therapeutic agent to target C. difficile infection.
| S-EPMC6391587 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In this study, we describe SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics in one cat and three dogs from households with confirmed human cases of COVID-19 living in the Madrid Community (Spain) at the time of expansion (December 2020 through June 2021) of the alpha variant (lineage B.1.1.7). A thorough physical exam and nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, and rectal swabs were collected for real-time reverse-transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) SARS-CoV-2 testing on day 0 and in successive samplings on days 7, 14, 21, and 47 during monitoring. Blood was also drawn to determine complete blood counts, biochemical profiles, and serology of the IgG response against SARS-CoV-2. On day 0, the cat case 1 presented with dyspnea and fever associated with a mild bronchoalveolar pattern. The dog cases 2, 3, and 4 were healthy, but case 2 presented with coughing, dyspnea, and weakness, and case 4 exhibited coughing and bilateral nasal discharge 3 and 6 days before the clinical exam. Case 3 (from the same household as case 2) remained asymptomatic. SARS-CoV-2 detection by RT-qPCR showed that the cat case 1 and the dog case 2 exhibited the lowest cycle threshold (Ct) (Ct < 30) when they presented clinical signs. Viral detection failed in successive samplings. Serological analyses revealed a positive IgG response in cat case 1 and dog cases 3 and 4 shortly after or simultaneously to virus shedding. Dog case 2 was seronegative, but seroconverted 21 days after SARS-CoV-2 detection. SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing was attempted, and genomes were classified as belonging to the B.1.1.7 lineage.
| S-EPMC8660077 | biostudies-literature