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Discussion on Research Summary: Prevalence of Clostridium difficile
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - 7:43 am:
It is always interesting to look at healthy horses and see how often you can isolate a pathogen from them. With such information you can better assess the significance of diagnostic findings when your horse is suspected of the disease. In cases like this where the prevalence rate of 7% is pretty high it also gets you to start asking questions of why do these horses have the organism but no signs of disease?
DrO
Vet Microbiol. 2011 Apr 22.
Prevalence of Clostridium difficile in horses.
Medina-Torres CE, Weese JS, Staempfli HR.
Source
Department of Clinical Studies, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
Fecal samples were collected to establish the apparent prevalence of Clostridium difficile shedding in Standardbred and Thoroughbred racehorses housed at 4 racetracks and 2 breeding facilities, and in horses admitted to a referral large animal clinic. Forty-one (7.59%) of 540 racetrack horses, seven (5.83%) of 120 breeding farm horses, and four (4.88%) out of 82 horses admitted to the referral clinic were culture-positive for C. difficile. An overall fecal culture prevalence of 7.01% for C. difficile was identified in 742 fecal samples. PCR-ribotyping and toxin gene identification was performed and seventeen 17 PCR-ribotypes were identified among the 52 C. difficile isolates.
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