a b s t r a c t
Clostridiumdifficile is increasinglyrecognizedasanimportantenteropathogeninbothhumansand
animals.Thefindingof C. difficile in airsamplesinhospitalssuggestsaroleforaerialdisseminationin
the transmissionofhuman C. difficile infection.Thepresentstudywasdesignedtoinvestigatethe
occurrenceofairborne C. difficile in, andnearbyapigfarmwithahighprevalenceof C. difficile. Airborne
colony countsinthefarrowingpenspeakedonthemomentsshortlyafterorduringpersonnelactivity
in thepens(P¼0.043 (farrowingpens1,2), P¼0.034 (farrowingpen2)).Adecreaseinairborne
C. difficile colonycountswasobservedparalleltoagingofthepiglets.Airborne C. difficile was detected
up to20mdistantfromthefarm.
This studyshowedwidespreadaerialdisseminationof C. difficile on apigfarmthatwaspositively
associatedwithpersonnelactivity