Clostridioides difficile is an anaerobic, sporogenic, Gram positive, toxin-producing bacterium and is one of the major intestinal pathogenic bacteria, with transmission occurring primarily via the faecal-oral route. Infection with C. difficile occurs primarily in hospitalised patients and is mediated by the formation of bacterial spores, which are highly resistant to environmental conditions. The C. difficile spores can be found in water, soil, parks, households, food, in animal samples and on the shoe soles in the home and laboratory environment. The significant increase in the number of community-associated infections in the past 10 years requires elucidation of C. difficile spore localisation to support transmission prevention. Thus, this study aims to determine the contamination of shoe soles with C. difficile spores and to compare PCR-ribotypes from shoe soles with PCR-ribotypes isolated in a diagnostic laboratory from patients with C. difficile infections in the same period of time. Shoe sole samples were collected from both laboratory and private shoes, which were either left in the locker room, or have been used for working inside the laboratories. PCR-ribotyping and toxinotyping were used for molecular characterization of isolates from shoe soles, and only PCR-ribotyping for the isolates from patients. In total, C. difficile was isolated from 4 shoe sole samples, all of which were collected from the worker's private shoes. Additionally, out of the 4 samples, 31 bacterial isolates were detected and classified into 3 different PCR-ribotypes, two of which were toxigenic and belonged to toxinotype 0. Interestingly, only one PCR-ribotype, 014/020, was the same as those isolated from patients with C. difficile infection. In contrast to previous work C. difficile was present in lower percentages on shoe soles from home environment and was not found on soles of the laboratory shoes. However, we conclude that the shoe soles serve as a potential vector for spore dissemination and transmission between different environments.
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