ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2014
Carriage of Clostridium difficile by wild urban Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and black rats (Rattus rattus).
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Rodent malaria parasites detected in the invasiveInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2025Article
- The Role ofMicroorganisms · 2025Review
- Genomic study of EuropeanMicrobial genomics · 2024Article
- Intestinal Colonization byBioMed research international · 2024Article
- Detection of multiple human enteropathogens in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) from an under-resourced neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Urban rats as carriers of invasive Salmonella Typhimurium sequence type 313, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Clostridioides difficile and multi-drug-resistant staphylococci in free-living rodents and marsupials in parks of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2022Article
- Using genetic relatedness to understand heterogeneous distributions of urban rat-associated pathogens.Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
- Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc · 2020Review
- Clostridium difficile in wild rodents and insectivores in the Netherlands.Letters in applied microbiology · 2019Article
- Article
- Environmental Factors Associated with the Carriage of Bacterial Pathogens in Norway Rats.EcoHealth · 2018Article
- Exposure to Rats and Rat-Associated Leptospira and Bartonella Species Among People Who Use Drugs in an Impoverished, Inner-City Neighborhood of Vancouver, Canada.Vector borne and zoonotic diseases (Larchmont, N.Y.) · 2018Article
- Livestock-associated methicillin-resistantCanadian journal of veterinary research = Revue canadienne de recherche veterinaire · 2018Article
- Review
- Wildlife health: A foundation for preparedness for environmental change.The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne · 2016Article
- Clostridium difficile in Food and Animals: A Comprehensive Review.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2016Review
- Longitudinal study of Clostridium difficile shedding in raccoons on swine farms and conservation areas in Ontario, Canada.BMC veterinary research · 2015Article
- Whole genome sequencing reveals potential spread of Clostridium difficile between humans and farm animals in the Netherlands, 2002 to 2011.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2014Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Clostridium difficile is an important cause of enteric infections in humans. Recently, concerns have been raised regarding whether animals could be a source of C. difficile spores. Although colonization has been identified in a number of domestic species, the ability of commensal pests to serve as a reservoir for C. difficile has not been well investigated. The objective of this study was to determine whether urban rats (Rattus spp.) from Vancouver, Canada, carry C. difficile. Clostridium difficile was isolated from the colon contents of trapped rats and was characterized using ribotyping, toxinotyping, and toxin gene identification. Generalized linear mixed models and spatial analysis were used to characterize the ecology of C. difficile in rats. Clostridium difficile was isolated from 95 of 724 (13.1%) rats, although prevalence differed from 0% to 46.7% among city blocks. The odds of being C. difficile positive decreased with increasing weight (odds ratio [OR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.87), suggesting that carriage is more common in younger animals. The strains isolated included 9 ribotypes that matched recognized international designations, 5 identified by our laboratory in previous studies, and 21 "novel" ribotypes. Some strains were clustered geographically; however, the majority were dispersed throughout the study area, supporting environmental sources of exposure and widespread environmental contamination with a variety of C. difficile strains. Given that urban rats are the source of a number of other pathogens responsible for human morbidity and mortality, the potential for rats to be a source of C. difficile for humans deserves further consideration.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.