seed grant competition

Tracing human gastrointestinal disease to its source

Jeffrey t. LeJeune, Food animal Health research program Kurt stevenson, internal medicine

In the past, the bacterium Clostridium difficile caused severe gastrointestinal disease almost exclusively among hospitalized patients who had received antibiotic treatment. However, over the last few years, the disease has been increasing in frequency and severity, affecting healthy individuals in the community with no existing risk factors. Because of the change in the diseases epidemiology, Ohio began requiring mandatory reporting of this infection in 2006. The emerging disease is caused by a single strain (clone) of the bacterium that has mutated to produce 20 times more toxin than before. This hypervirulent clone is spreading worldwide, putting many more people at risk for infection. The recent identification of the hypervirulent C. difficile strain in young livestock and retail meat raises concerns that food-producing animals may be reservoirs for this

organism. The research team investigated this question by using molecular epidemiological methods to compare isolates obtained from a variety of animals throughout the United States. Through several studies, the project documented the presence of C. difficile in cattle at the time of harvest, as well as in retail vegetables. The epidemic strains of C. difficile were present in the cattles intestinal content in four regions of the United States, but the data indicated that food animals in general carry C. difficile at a low rate at the time they enter the food chain, making it unlikely to cause infection in humans. Additional sources of meat contamination, such as during meat processing, should be investigated as possible points of entry of this organism into the food chain.

The emerging disease is caused by a single strain (clone) of the bacterium that has mutated to produce 20 times more toxin than before.
Jeffrey t. LeJeune

www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/seeds

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SEEDS: The OARDC Research Enhancement Competitive Grants Program