Agricultural fertilization with poultry manure results in persistent environmental contamination with the pathogen Clostridioides difficile

Summary During a field experiment applying broiler manure for fertilization of agricultural land, we detected viable Clostridioides (also known as Clostridium) difficile in broiler faeces, manure, dust and fertilized soil. A large diversity of toxigenic C. difficile isolates was recovered, including...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental microbiology 2021-12, Vol.23 (12), p.7591-7602
Main Authors: Frentrup, Martinique, Thiel, Nadine, Junker, Vera, Behrens, Wiebke, Münch, Steffen, Siller, Paul, Kabelitz, Tina, Faust, Matthias, Indra, Alexander, Baumgartner, Stefanie, Schepanski, Kerstin, Amon, Thomas, Roesler, Uwe, Funk, Roger, Nübel, Ulrich
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agricultural pollution
Animals
Atmospheric particulates
Biological fertilization
Chickens
Clostridioides
Clostridioides difficile - genetics
Dispersal
Dust
Dust storms
Emissions
Farms
Fertilization
Gene sequencing
Genomes
Human diseases
Manure
Manures
Meat
Nucleotide sequence
Pathogens
PCR
Poultry
Poultry farming
Poultry manure
Ribotyping
Soil
Soil contamination
Soil pollution
Soils
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Summary During a field experiment applying broiler manure for fertilization of agricultural land, we detected viable Clostridioides (also known as Clostridium) difficile in broiler faeces, manure, dust and fertilized soil. A large diversity of toxigenic C. difficile isolates was recovered, including PCR ribotypes common from human disease. Genomic relatedness of C. difficile isolates from dust and from soil, recovered more than 2 years after fertilization, traced their origins to the specific chicken farm that had delivered the manure. We present evidence of long‐term contamination of agricultural soil with manure‐derived C. difficile and demonstrate the potential for airborne dispersal of C. difficile through dust emissions during manure application. Clostridioides genome sequences virtually identical to those from manure had been recovered from chicken meat and from human infections in previous studies, suggesting broiler‐associated C. difficile are capable of zoonotic transmission.
ISSN:1462-2912
1462-2920
DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.15601