title: Isolation of a toxigenic and clinical genotype of clostridium difficile in retail meats in Costa Rica.
abstract: We isolated a regional toxigenic genotype of Clostridium difficile, previously found in human infection in 4 of 200 (2%) samples of retail meats for human consumption: 1 of 67 samples of beef, 2 of 66 of pork, and 1 of 67 of poultry meat. These four isolates were positive for  the tcdA and tcdB genes but negative for deletion of the tcdC and cdtB genes. All strains induced cytopathic effects in HeLa cells. However, they were susceptible to some antibiotics to which clinical isolates are often resistant. All strains were susceptible to  vancomycin, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, and rifampicin but resistant to clindamycin and ciprofloxacin. This first report of isolation of C. difficile in foodstuff from Latin America lends support to the notion that animal products serve as a reservoir for clinical strains of this pathogen  in the community.
authors: Laboratorio de Investigación en Bacteriología Anaerobia, Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales, and Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio,  San Pedro de Montes de Oca 2060, San José, Costa Rica.
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Quesada-Gómez
authors: Michael R
authors: MR
authors: Mulvey
authors: Pablo
authors: P
authors: Vargas
authors: María del Mar
authors: Mdel M
authors: Gamboa-Coronado
authors: César
authors: C
authors: Rodríguez
authors: Evelyn
authors: E
authors: Rodríguez-Cavillini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003364:Costa Rica; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D021521:Ribotyping
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents