The Frequency of Clostridium difficile in Processing steps of hamburger

Clostridium difficile (C.difficile) is known as a cause of diarrhea through antibiotic usage and life threatening pseudo-membranous colitis. The meat products such as hamburger are one of possible resources for C. difficile transmission to human. The present study was conducted to examine the frequency of C. difficile in the processing steps of hamburger by culture method and biochemical test.

In this cross sectional study, 211 samples including raw material and final product of hamburger were collected from 3 and 4 hamburger manufacturing companies certified with and without HACCP, respectively during June 2012 to January 2013. The sampling by swab was done from production facilities. The samples were cultured in Clostridium difficile moxalactam norofloxacin (CDMN) broth. Then it was streaked on the CDMN agar in anaerobic condition. The suspicious colonies were an aerobically sub cultured on the blood agar. Bacteriological examinations were performed by some biochemical tests. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used with p-value ≤ 0.05.

The frequency of C.difficile was 5.5% and 14% in hamburger manufacturing companies certified with and without HACCP, respectively. There was no difference in C.difficle prevalence according to the season (p= 0.34). But the difference was observed in the results based on HACCP certification (p= 0.03).

These results indicate the hamburger may serve as a vehicle for C.difficle transmission to human. Furthermore, HACCP implementation can reduce the C.difficle prevalence.