Clostridioides difficile in Australian dairy farms

Su-Chen Lim; Jessica Chisholm; Deirdre A Collins; Molly Lattin; Charlotte Bell; Linda Selvey; Simon Reid; Thomas V Riley

doi:10.1016/j.anaerobe.2025.102983

Clostridioides difficile in Australian dairy farms

Anaerobe. 2025 Jul 8:102983. doi: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2025.102983. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Su-Chen Lim¹, Jessica Chisholm², Deirdre A Collins³, Molly Lattin⁴, Charlotte Bell⁴, Linda Selvey⁴, Simon Reid⁴, Thomas V Riley⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, WA, Australia; School of Medical & Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia. Electronic address: suchen.lim@uwa.edu.au.
² School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, WA, Australia.
³ School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, WA, Australia; School of Medical & Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia.
⁴ School of Public Health, University of Queensland, QLD, Australia.
⁵ School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, WA, Australia; School of Medical & Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia; Department of Microbiology, PathWest Laboratory Medicine, Nedlands, WA, Australia.

PMID: 40639681
DOI: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2025.102983

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and diversity of C. difficile in Australian dairy farms.

Methods: A total of 320 samples, including faeces, rectal swabs, effluent, soil and water, were collected from seven dairy farms across two Australian states.

Results: C. difficile was present in all seven farms (100%) and 44.4% of the samples tested, with the highest prevalence found in soil (94.3%), effluent (73.7%) and faeces (60.4%). Forty-four distinct ribotypes were identified among 174 isolates, of which 17 have been found previously in humans. C. difficile ribotype (RT) 127 (A+B+CDT+) was the predominant strain, comprising 42.5% of isolates. The findings also indicated that the environment of Australian dairy farms is persistently contaminated with C. difficile, especially RT 127 and may represent a potential source for zoonotic transmission.

Conclusions: C. difficile may be widespread in Australian dairy farms, with notably high prevalence in both animals and environmental samples.

Keywords: Clostridioides difficile; RT127; dairy cows; farm environment.