Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic pathogenic bacteriium, which can over-multiply during imbalance in gut microbiota and cause anything from mild diarrhoea to pseudomembranotic colitis. It is quite common in hospitals and also in the environment. We focused on isolation of C. difficile from soil from farming fields, gardens, parks and from sand from sandboxes. Samples were collected on 30 different locations in Pomurje region. Individual samples were treated with two methods, which differed in starting steps – direct method and method that included sonication. All isoalted were characterised by PCR ribotyping and toxinotyping. C. difficile were isolated from 17 positive samples (56,7%) – 15 samples of soil and 2 samples of sand. Of 170 C. difficile isolates obtained 15 different PCR-ribotypes were identified, of which one was new – SLO 257. Seven PCR-ribotypes were nontoxigenic and 8 were toxigenic – belongin toxinotypes 0 and IV. Ribotypes partially overlap with ribotypes found in humans and animals. In soil a few ribotypes (mostly nontoxigenic) have also been found, which haven’t been detected in human population previously, indicating that some types may be more adapted tothe environment. Our result show higher numbers of C. difficile positive soil samples than previously reported. Also, in this work isolation of C. difficile from sand in sandboxes in Slovenia, has been reported for the first time.
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