背景：
艰难梭菌（艰难梭菌）是人类抗生素相关性腹泻的主要原因。已经进行了几项研究以揭示猫和狗中艰难梭菌的流行率。然而，对于中国健康宠物中艰难梭菌的流行病学知之甚少。本研究旨在评估中国健康犬和猫的艰难梭菌脱落负担。此外，确定了回收的分离株的遗传多样性和抗菌药物敏感性模式。

方法：
从146只健康狗和29只猫中收集了总共175个粪便样本。从这些宠物的粪便中分离并鉴定出艰难梭菌菌株。通过多位点序列分型（MLST）对特征性艰难梭菌菌株进行分型，并通过琼脂稀释法测定分离株的MIC对氨苄青霉素，克林霉素，四环素，莫西沙星，氯霉素，头孢西丁，甲硝唑和万古霉素。

结果：
总体而言，3个粪便样品（1.7％）是艰难梭菌培养阳性。来自狗的一个样品（0.7％）是艰难梭菌培养阳性，而两只猫（7.0％）产生阳性培养物。猫和狗的患病率差异很大。这些分离株被分为3种MLST基因型，对氯霉素，四环素，甲硝唑和莫西沙星敏感，对氨苄青霉素，克林霉素和头孢西丁耐药。值得注意的是，一种对三种抗生素和携带毒素基因具有抗性的菌株D141-1在健康犬的粪便中被回收。

结论：
我们的研究结果表明，常见的宠物可能是致病性艰难梭菌的来源，这表明不能排除家养从艰难的艰难梭菌到人类的传播。

BACKGROUND:
Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a main cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in humans. Several studies have been performed to reveal the prevalence rate of C. difficile in cats and dogs. However, little is known about the epidemiology of C. difficile in healthy pets in China. This study aimed to assess the burden of C. difficile shedding by healthy dogs and cats in China. Furthermore, the genetic diversity and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the recovered isolates were determined.

METHODS:
A total of 175 faecal samples were collected from 146 healthy dogs and 29 cats. C. difficile strains were isolated and identified from the feces of these pets. The characterized C. difficile strains were typed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and the MICs of the isolates were determined against ampicillin, clindamycin, tetracycline, moxifloxacin, chloramphenicol, cefoxitin, metronidazole and vancomycin by the agar dilution method.

RESULTS:
Overall, 3 faecal samples (1.7%) were C. difficile culture positive. One sample (0.7%) from a dog was C. difficile culture positive, while two cats (7.0%) yielded positive cultures. The prevalence rate differed significantly between cats and dogs. These isolates were typed into 3 MLST genotypes and were susceptible to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, metronidazole and moxifloxacin and resistant to ampicillin, clindamycin and cefoxitin. Notably, one strain, D141-1, which was resistant to three kinds of antibiotics and carried toxin genes, was recovered in the faeces of a healthy dog.

CONCLUSION:
Our results suggest that common pets may be a source of pathogenic C. difficile, indicating that household transmission of C. difficile from pets to humans can not be excluded.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30634930