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Volume 13, Number 3—March 2007
Dispatch

Clostridium difficile in Retail Ground Meat, Canada

Alexander Rodriguez-Palacios*Comments to Author , Henry R. Staempfli*, Todd Duffield*, and J. Scott Weese*
Author affiliations: *University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada;

Main Article

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 codeGround beef productMonth sampledDate sample processedStore/brand code‡
077A+B+, cdtB–, classic tcdC, toxinotype 0M01RegularJanJun 20A/1
M02RegularJanJun 20A/1
M26A–B–, cdtB–, tcdC–, nontoxinotypeableM26Extra leanMayAug 10A/1
M31A+B+, cdtB+, type B/C tcdC, toxinotype IIIM31Regular pattiesAugSep 1B/4
M38LeanAugSep 1B/4
M41MediumSepSep 6C/7
M43VealSepSep 6B/6
M44LeanAugSep 6B/4
M47Lean pattiesSepSep 6B/4
M51Lean pattiesSepSep 6B/1
M52Lean pattiesSepSep 6B/4
014A+B+, cdtB–, classic tcdC, toxinotype 0M54§RegularSepSep 20D/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.

Main Article

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