Gustafsson, Agneta
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Reasons for performing study: Clostridium difficile has been associated with acute colitis in mature horses. Objectives: To survey C. difficile colonisation of the alimentary tract with age, occurrence of diarrhoea and history of antibiotic therapy; and to study the occurrence and survival of C. difficile in the environment and antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated strains. Methods: A total of 777 horses of different breeds, age and sex were studied. Further, 598 soil samples and 434 indoor surface samples were examined. Antimicrobial susceptibility of 52 strains was investigated by Etest for 10 antibiotics. Results: In horses that developed acute colitis during antibiotic treatment, 18 of 43 (42%) were positive to C. difficile culture and 12 of these (28%) were positive in the cytotoxin B test. Furthermore, C. difficile was isolated from a small! number of diarrhoeic mature horses (4 of 72 [6%]) with no history of antibiotic treatment, but not from 273 healthy mature horses examined or 65 horses with colic. An interesting new finding was that, in normal healthy foals age
Published in
Equine Veterinary Journal
2003, volume: 35, number: 5, pages: 465-471
Publisher: EQUINE VETERINARY JOURNAL LTD
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Clinical Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.2746/042516403775600505
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/2502