Volume 13, Number 3—March 2007
Dispatch
Clostridium difficile in Retail Ground Meat, Canada
, Henry R. Staempfli*, Todd Duffield*, and J. Scott Weese*Table 1
Description of 12 Clostridium difficile strains isolated from retail ground meat samples in Ontario (n = 11) and Quebec (n = 1), Canada, 2005
| PCR ribotype* | PCR toxin genes† | Meat code | Ground beef product | Month sampled | Date sample processed | Store/brand code‡ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 077 | A+B+, cdtB–, classic tcdC, toxinotype 0 | M01 | Regular | Jan | Jun 20 | A/1 |
| M02 | Regular | Jan | Jun 20 | A/1 | ||
| M26 | A–B–, cdtB–, tcdC–, nontoxinotypeable | M26 | Extra lean | May | Aug 10 | A/1 |
| M31 | A+B+, cdtB+, type B/C tcdC, toxinotype III | M31 | Regular patties | Aug | Sep 1 | B/4 |
| M38 | Lean | Aug | Sep 1 | B/4 | ||
| M41 | Medium | Sep | Sep 6 | C/7 | ||
| M43 | Veal | Sep | Sep 6 | B/6 | ||
| M44 | Lean | Aug | Sep 6 | B/4 | ||
| M47 | Lean patties | Sep | Sep 6 | B/4 | ||
| M51 | Lean patties | Sep | Sep 6 | B/1 | ||
| M52 | Lean patties | Sep | Sep 6 | B/4 | ||
| 014 | A+B+, cdtB–, classic tcdC, toxinotype 0 | M54§ | Regular | Sep | Sep 20 | D/2 |
*077 and 014; nomenclature of Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom; M26 and M31 temporary nomenclature based on the PCR typing method of Bidet et al. (10). Eleven (91.6%) of 12 isolates were toxigenic.
†A, toxic gene tcdA; B, tcdB; cdtB, CDTb gene for the binding segment of the binary toxin; – and + indicate absence or presence of the gene. Classic tcdC, gene with no deletions; (≈345 bp); type B/C tcdC, gene with an ≈18-bp deletion (4).
‡Type of processed/packaged product; code 4, ground beef hamburgers sold as a special offer; other codes represent typical commercial ground beef packages.
§Commercial package from Quebec.
