TY - JOUR T1 - Household pets as a potential reservoir for Clostridium difficile infection. JF - Journal of Clinical Pathology JO - J Clin Pathol SP - 84 LP - 87 DO - 10.1136/jcp.36.1.84 VL - 36 IS - 1 AU - S P Borriello AU - P Honour AU - T Turner AU - F Barclay Y1 - 1983/01/01 UR - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/36/1/84.abstract N2 - The purpose of this study was to assess the carriage of Clostridium difficile by household pets to determine their potential as a reservoir of infection. The selective cycloserine-cefoxitin medium was used for C difficile isolation, and tissue culture used for detection of cytotoxin. Carriage of C difficile by household pets was found to be common (23%). The carriage tends to be transient and does not appear to be associated with gastrointestinal disease. Although carriage was higher in animals who had antecedent antibiotic treatment (31%) compared to those which had not (19%), the differences were not statistically significant. In most cases non-cytotoxigenic strains were isolated. Of the cytotoxigenic strains isolated at least one strain was pathogenic in a well documented animal model of human disease. Both cytotoxigenic and non-cytotoxigenic strains of C difficile could be isolated from the environment of the animals studied. ER -