The present study aimed to elucidate the prevalence of Clostridioides difficile in Japanese retail food products. For this purpose, retail food samples (242 fresh vegetables and 266 retail meat samples: 89 chicken meat; 28 chicken liver; 200 pork meat; 24 pig liver; 127 beef meat) were collected from 14 supermarkets between 2015 and 2019. C. difficile was isolated from eight (3.3%) fresh vegetable, six (6.7%) chicken meat, one (3.6%) chicken liver, one (0.5%) pork meat, and two (1.6%) beef meat samples; it was not isolated from pig liver. Of these isolates, 35% were toxigenic. All isolates were typable by PCR ribotyping and were resolved into 12 PCR ribotypes. Among these isolates, ribotype 014, which is distributed worldwide including in Japanese clinical cases, was detected among vegetable isolates. Therefore, although the C. difficile contamination rate in Japanese retail foods was low, these sources can be contaminated and could transmit these bacteria to humans.

本研究旨在阐明日本零售食品中难辨梭状芽胞杆菌的流行情况。为此，在2015年至2019年之间，从14个超市中收集了零售食品样本（242种新鲜蔬菜和266种零售肉类样本：89种鸡肉； 28种鸡肝； 200种猪肉； 24种猪肝； 127种牛肉）。从八种（3.3％）新鲜蔬菜，六种（6.7％）鸡肉，一种（3.6％）鸡肝，一种（0.5％）猪肉和两种（1.6％）牛肉样品中分离出来；它不是从猪肝中分离出来的。在这些分离物中，有35％是有毒的。所有分离物均可通过PCR核型分型，并被分为12种PCR核型。在这些分离株中，在蔬菜分离株中检出了014种核糖体，包括日本的临床病例在内。因此，尽管日本零售食品中艰难梭菌的污染率很低，但这些来源可能受到污染，并可能将这些细菌传播给人类。