1887
  1. Home
  2. Eurosurveillance
  3. Volume 27, Issue 15, 14/Apr/2022
  4. Article
Research Open Access
Like 0
Download

Abstract

Background

While human-to-human transmission of occurs often, other infection sources, including food, animals and environment, are under investigation.

Aim

We present a large study on in a food item in Europe, encompassing 12 European countries (Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Romania and the United Kingdom).

Methods

Potato was selected because of availability, ease of sampling and high positivity rates. Identical protocols for sampling and isolation were used, enabling a direct comparison of the positivity rate.

Results

From -positive potato samples (33/147; 22.4%), we obtained 504 isolates, grouped into 38 PCR ribotypes. Positivity rates per country varied (0–100%) and were at least 10% in 9/12 countries. No geographical clustering of samples with high positivity rates or in PCR ribotype distribution was observed. The most frequently detected PCR ribotypes (014/020, 078/126, 010 and 023) are also commonly reported in Europe among human clinically relevant isolates, in animal isolates and in the environment. Whole genome sequencing revealed several genetically related strain pairs (Spain/RT126, France/RT010, Austria and Sweden/RT276) and a cluster of very similar strains in RT078/126.

Conclusion

Our results suggest, the high potato contamination rates could have public health relevance. They indicate potatoes can serve as a vector for introducing spores in the household environment, where the bacterium can then multiply in sensitive hosts with disrupted or unmature microbiota. Potato contamination with PCR ribotypes shared between humans, animals and soil is supportive of this view.

© Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417
2022-04-14
2024-04-26
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/15/eurosurv-27-15-5.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Point prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospitals. Stockholm: ECDC; 2013. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/point-prevalence-survey-healthcare-associated-infections-and-antimicrobial-use-0
  2. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Healthcare-associated infections: Clostridium difficile infections - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2016. Stockholm: ECDC; 2018. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/healthcare-associated-infections-clostridium-difficile-infections-annual
  3. Lim SC, Knight DR, Riley TV. Clostridium difficile and One Health. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2020;26(7):857-63.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2019.10.023  PMID: 31682985 
  4. Eyre DW, Davies KA, Davis G, Fawley WN, Dingle KE, De Maio N, et al. Two distinct patterns of Clostridium difficile diversity across Europe indicating contrasting routes of spread. Clin Infect Dis. 2018;67(7):1035-44.  https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy252  PMID: 29659747 
  5. Lim SC, Foster NF, Elliott B, Riley TV. High prevalence of Clostridium difficile on retail root vegetables, Western Australia. J Appl Microbiol. 2018;124(2):585-90.  https://doi.org/10.1111/jam.13653  PMID: 29193458 
  6. Tkalec V, Janezic S, Skok B, Simonic T, Mesaric S, Vrabic T, et al. High Clostridium difficile contamination rates of domestic and imported potatoes compared to some other vegetables in Slovenia. Food Microbiol. 2019;78:194-200.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2018.10.017  PMID: 30497603 
  7. Tkalec V, Jamnikar-Ciglenecki U, Rupnik M, Vadnjal S, Zelenik K, Biasizzo M. Clostridioides difficile in national food surveillance, Slovenia, 2015 to 2017. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(16):1900479.  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.16.1900479  PMID: 32347203 
  8. Rodriguez Diaz C, Seyboldt C, Rupnik M. Non-human C. difficile reservoirs and sources: animals, food, environment. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2018;1050:227-43.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72799-8_13  PMID: 29383672 
  9. Knight DR, Riley TV. Genomic delineation of zoonotic origins of Clostridium difficile. Front Public Health. 2019;7:164.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00164  PMID: 31281807 
  10. Davies KA, Longshaw CM, Davis GL, Bouza E, Barbut F, Barna Z, et al. Underdiagnosis of Clostridium difficile across Europe: the European, multicentre, prospective, biannual, point-prevalence study of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalised patients with diarrhoea (EUCLID). Lancet Infect Dis. 2014;14(12):1208-19.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(14)70991-0  PMID: 25455988 
  11. Janezic S, Rupnik M. Molecular typing methods for Clostridium difficile: pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and PCR ribotyping. Methods Mol Biol. 2010;646:55-65.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-365-7_4  PMID: 20597002 
  12. Fawley WN, Knetsch CW, MacCannell DR, Harmanus C, Du T, Mulvey MR, et al. Development and validation of an internationally-standardized, high-resolution capillary gel-based electrophoresis PCR-ribotyping protocol for Clostridium difficile. PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0118150.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118150  PMID: 25679978 
  13. Stubbs SL, Brazier JS, O’Neill GL, Duerden BI. PCR targeted to the 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacer region of Clostridium difficile and construction of a library consisting of 116 different PCR ribotypes. J Clin Microbiol. 1999;37(2):461-3.  https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.37.2.461-463.1999  PMID: 9889244 
  14. Rupnik M. Clostridium difficile toxinotyping. Methods Mol Biol. 2010;646:67-76.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-365-7_5  PMID: 20597003 
  15. Rupnik M, Janezic S. An update on Clostridium difficile toxinotyping. J Clin Microbiol. 2016;54(1):13-8.  https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02083-15  PMID: 26511734 
  16. Davies KA, Ashwin H, Longshaw CM, Burns DA, Davis GL, Wilcox MH. Diversity of Clostridium difficile PCR ribotypes in Europe: results from the European, multicentre, prospective, biannual, point-prevalence study of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalised patients with diarrhoea (EUCLID), 2012 and 2013. Euro Surveill. 2016;21(29).  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.29.30294  PMID: 27470194 
  17. Tamura K, Stecher G, Peterson D, Filipski A, Kumar S. MEGA6: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol Biol Evol. 2013;30(12):2725-9.  https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197  PMID: 24132122 
  18. Janezic S, Potocnik M, Zidaric V, Rupnik M. Highly divergent Clostridium difficile Strains isolated from the environment. PLoS One. 2016;11(11):e0167101.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167101  PMID: 27880843 
  19. Knight DR, Squire MM, Collins DA, Riley TV. Genome analysis of Clostridium difficile PCR Ribotype 014 lineage in Australian pigs and humans reveals a diverse genetic repertoire and signatures of long-range interspecies transmission. Front Microbiol. 2017;7:2138.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.02138  PMID: 28123380 
  20. Janezic S, Rupnik M. Development and implementation of whole genome sequencing-based typing schemes for Clostridioides difficile. Front Public Health. 2019;7:309.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00309  PMID: 31709221 
  21. Kumar A, Davenport KW, Vuyisich G, Kunde YA, Johnson SL, Chain PSG, et al. Complete genome sequences of historic Clostridioides difficile food-dwelling ribotype 078 strains in Canada identical to that of the historic human clinical strain M120 in the United Kingdom. Microbiol Resour Announc. 2018;7(12):e00853-18.  https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00853-18  PMID: 30533668 
  22. Knetsch CW, Kumar N, Forster SC, Connor TR, Browne HP, Harmanus C, et al. Zoonotic transfer of Clostridium difficile harboring antimicrobial resistance between farm animals and humans. J Clin Microbiol. 2018;56(3):e01384-17.  https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01384-17  PMID: 29237792 
Clostridioides difficile positivity rate and PCR ribotype distribution on retail potatoes in 12 European countries, January to June 2018
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Valerija+Tkalec&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Tkalec Valerija</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Virginie+Viprey&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Viprey Virginie</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Georgina+Davis&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Davis Georgina</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Sandra+Janezic&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Janezic Sandra</a>, <a href="/search?value1=B%C3%A9atrice+Sente&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Sente Béatrice</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Nathalie+Devos&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Devos Nathalie</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Mark+Wilcox&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Wilcox Mark</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Kerrie+Davies&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Davies Kerrie</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maja+Rupnik&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Rupnik Maja</a>, <a href="/search?value1=on+behalf+of+the+COMBACTE-CDI+consortium&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">on behalf of the COMBACTE-CDI consortium</a></span>. Clostridioides difficile positivity rate and PCR ribotype distribution on retail potatoes in 12 European countries, January to June 2018. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2022;27(15):pii=2100417. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 07 Apr 2021;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 28 Nov 2021 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2100417
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error