Isolation and identification of Clostridium difficile from cases of diarrhea in young farm animals, and the determination of antimicrobial susceptibility

Abstract: Clostridium difficile was isolated for the first time in 1935 from fecal samples of infants, although it was not until 1978 that its pathogenicity started to be considered, when it was shown to cause antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. In this study, it was aimed to determine the virulence and antibiotic resistance profiles of C. dificile in young ruminants with diarrhea and chickens fed on the farm. A total of 200 fecal samples (50 from calves, 50 from lambs and 50 from kid goats with neonatal diarrhea, as well as 50 cloacal swab samples taken from chickens) were taken and analyzed. C. difficile was isolated from 58 of the fecal samples (29.0%), being isolated from 35 of the fecal samples taken from calves (70.0%), 15 from lambs (30.0%), seven from kid goats (14.0%) and one from chickens (2.0%), and of these, 28 isolates were found to have toxigenic characteristics (48.2%) following species identification and toxin characterization. In the following stage, antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed for a total of 24 toxigenic strains using the microbroth dilution method, and the toxigenic isolates were found to be resistant to ampicillin, cefoxitin, clindamycin, penicillin and tetracycline. The study identified the presence of toxigenic C. difficile in diarrhea cases in neonatal calves and lambs for the first time in our country.Key words: Clostridium difficile, antimicrobial susceptibility test, Erzurum, neonatal, Farm animal, calf

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