Three to
five rabbits of 290
flocks from 285 rabbit holdings
were examined. Holdings were located in north Italy, representing approximately 40% of the Italian industrial holdings raising
rabbits for meat production. Five holdings were tested twice
because there was at least a 4 years span between sampling that
we judged would have reduced similarity of rabbit
flocks and
diluted the risk of over-clustering.
Overall, 1279 rabbits were tested, 1136 affected by enteric
disorders and 143 not diarrhoeic. Three % (38/1279) of broth
cultures tested positive with the real time PCR for C. difficile.
C. difficile was isolated only from PCR positive broth cultures and all
PCR positive broth cultures ended with C. difficile being isolated.
The proportion of C. difficile positive animals ranged from 0.7%
(1/143) to 3.3% (37/1136) in animals not affected and affected by
enteric diseases, respectively, but the observed different propor-
tion was not significant (P = 0.1143).