Community-acquired Clostridium difficile infection and Australian food animals

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic Gram positive spore-forming bacterium, the leading cause of infectious diarrhoea (C. difficile infection; CDI) in hospitalised humans. The assumption that CDI is primarily a hospital-acquired infection is being questioned. Community-acquired CDI (CA-CDI) is increasing(1) particularly in groups previously considered at low risk(2,3). In Australia, CA-CDI rates doubled during 2011 and increased by 24% between 2011 and 2012(4). Two potentially high-risk practices in Australian food animal husbandry may present a risk for CA-CDI: slaughtering of neonatal animals for food, and effluent recycling to agriculture.