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Category: Public Health
Poster Session: Public Health
Laurel E. Redding
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Terry Webb
Large Animal Clinical Research Nurse
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Denise Barnhart
Microbiology technician
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Linda Baker
Associate Professor of Clinical Dairy Production Medicine
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Joseph Bender
Assistant Professor of Clinical Dairy Production Medicine
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Michaela Kristula
Associate Professor of Medicine in Field Service
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Donna Kelly
Assistant Professor of Clinical Microbiology
University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
First, we validated a glove-juice protocol to detect CD spores on the hands of farm workers. Volunteers’ hands were inoculated with serially diluted suspensions of non-toxigenic CD organisms, and hand rinsates underwent broth enrichment and anaerobic culture. Second, we collected fecal samples from 5 randomly selected dairy calves (< 7 d of age) from each of 23 farms in southeastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Delaware. We focused specifically on dairy calves, as the prevalence of CD is highest in this age group. Third, using the glove-juice protocol, we collected hand rinsates from 38 dairy farm workers who work closely with calves. Only 4 of these workers were willing to submit fecal samples along with their hand rinsates. All fecal samples and hand rinsates underwent broth enrichment and anaerobic culture for CD.
Results: Validation of the glove juice protocol showed that CD could be recovered successfully from all hand rinsate dilutions (up to 10-6). When applied to farm workers, this method yielded CD in none of the hand rinsates (0%, 95% CI 0.0-92.2%). CD was also not detected in any of the human fecal samples. However, CD was detected from calf fecal samples on 10 farms (43.5%, 95% CI 20.8%-80.0%).
Conclusion: While the zoonotic transmission of CD cannot be ruled out, our results suggest that contact with dairy animals is not likely to be associated with an increased risk of acquiring CD via the fecal-oral route. The glove-juice protocol appears to be a useful tool for studying the epidemiology of CD in populations where obtaining fecal samples is difficult.