In piglets, Clostridioides (C.) difficile infection presents mostly subclinical manifestation. As this agent became important in veterinary medicine due to a hypothesis of zoonosis, the objective of this study was to evaluate the transmission of C. difficile by nose-to-nose contact in young piglets. Six 20-day-old piglets were separated into three groups (infected, sentinel and control), and distributed in different isolation cabinets which allowed nose-to-nose contact only between infected and sentinel groups. The challenged group received an inoculum 10⁶ CFU/mL of C. difficile 096 by oropharyngeal route. Rectal swab samples were daily collected for microbiological and molecular analysis. Euthanasia of all piglets was performed 18 days after challenge to evaluate anatomical, histological and microbiological lesions of the organs of these animals. The challenged and sentinel groups showed clinical signs of infection and genes encoding TcdB were detected by conventional PCR in both groups, confirming the transmission of the pathogen from the challenged to the sentinel piglets. At necropsy, tonsil, liver, spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes, ileocolic lymph nodes, jejunum, ileum, proximal colon, distal colon and cecum were collected for microbiological analysis; lesions were observed varying in degree and intensity. This study demonstrated a novel route of transmission of C. difficile between young piglets, which was proven to occur by nose-to-nose contact.

在仔猪，Clostridioides（C.）艰难感染的礼物大多是亚临床表现。由于该药物由于人畜共患病的假说而在兽医学中变得很重要，因此本研究的目的是评估通过鼻鼻接触在幼仔猪中传播艰难梭菌。将六只20日龄的仔猪分为三组（感染，前哨和对照组），并分配在不同的隔离柜中，隔离柜仅允许鼻子与鼻子之间在感染组和前哨组之间进行接触。挑战组接受接种的10 ⁶ CFU / mL艰难梭菌096通过口咽途径。每天收集直肠拭子样品用于微生物学和分子分析。攻击后18天对所有仔猪实施安乐死，以评估这些动物器官的解剖学，组织学和微生物学损害。攻击组和前哨组均显示出感染的临床征兆，并且通过常规PCR在两组中检测到编码TcdB的基因，从而证实了病原体从攻击组传播到前哨仔猪。尸检时，收集扁桃体，肝脏，脾脏，肠系膜淋巴结，回肠淋巴结，空肠，回肠，近端结肠，远端结肠和盲肠进行微生物学分析。观察到病变的程度和强度不同。这项研究证明了艰难梭菌的新型传播途径 仔猪之间存在鼻腔接触，事实证明这是鼻鼻接触引起的。