Clostridioides Difficile Infection in Pig Farms, a One Health Perspective: Infection Dynamic and Genomic Analysis

Clostridioides difficile has been recognized as a pathogen of humans and diverse animal species and is considered the leading cause of healthcare-associated infective diarrhoea. However, several changes in the epidemiology of C. difficile infection has been observed over the past two decades, mainly a rise in the incidence and severity as well as an increasing number of community-acquired cases. This fact has prompted to search for sources of C. difficile outside the clinical settings. Even though a food-borne transmission has not yet been proved, the zoonotic potential of animal strains has been evidenced. Apart from that, C. difficile is considered an important cause of neonatal diarrhoea in the pig industry, but several aspects regarding swine infection remain to be fully elucidated.