Characterization of Clostridium Perfringens Isolates Collected from Three Agricultural Biogas Plants over a One-Year Period

Lorine Derongs, Céline Druilhe, Christine Ziebal, Caroline Le Maréchal and Anne-Marie Pourcher
Additional contact information
Lorine Derongs: INRAE, OPAALE Research Unit, CS 64427, F-35044 Rennes, France
Céline Druilhe: INRAE, OPAALE Research Unit, CS 64427, F-35044 Rennes, France
Christine Ziebal: INRAE, OPAALE Research Unit, CS 64427, F-35044 Rennes, France
Caroline Le Maréchal: ANSES, Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort Laboratory, Hygiene and Quality of Poultry and Pig Products Unit, BP53, F-22440 Ploufragan, France
Anne-Marie Pourcher: INRAE, OPAALE Research Unit, CS 64427, F-35044 Rennes, France

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-12

Abstract: Digestate produced by agricultural biogas plants (BGPs) may contain pathogenic bacteria. Among them, Clostridium perfringens deserves particular attention due to its ability to grow under anaerobic conditions and persist in amended soil. The aim of this study was to examine the potential pathogenicity and the antimicrobial resistance of C. perfringens in manure and digestate collected from three agricultural biogas plants (BGPs). A total of 157 isolates (92 from manure, 65 from digestate) were screened for genes encoding seven toxins ( cpa , cpb , etx , iap cpe , netB , and cpb 2). The 138 cpa positive isolates were then screened for tetA (P), tetB (P), tet (M), and erm (Q) genes and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. The toxinotypes identified in both manure and digestate were type A (78.3% of the isolates), type G (16.7%), type C (3.6%), and type D (1.4%), whereas none of the isolates were type F. Moreover, half of the isolates carried the cpb2 gene. The overall prevalence of tetA (P) gene alone, tetA (P)- tetB (P) genes, and erm (Q) gene was 31.9, 34.8, and 6.5%, respectively. None of the isolates harbored the tet (M) gene. Multiple antimicrobial resistant isolates were found in samples that were collected from all the manure and digestates. Among them, 12.3% were highly resistant to some of the antibiotics tested, especially to clindamycin (MIC ≥ 16 µg/mL) and tilmicosin (MIC > 64 µg/mL). Some isolates were highly resistant to antibiotics used in human medicine, including vancomycin (MIC > 8 µg/mL) and imipenem (MIC > 64 µg/mL). These results suggest that digestate may be a carrier of the virulent and multidrug resistant C. perfringens .

Keywords: C. perfringens; mesophilic anaerobic digestion; manure; digestate; toxinotypes; antimicrobial susceptibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5450/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5450/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5450-:d:391281

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().