What's In Your Soil: Investigation of Pathogenic CDI in Soil
Date
2017-10-12
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Abstract
Clostridium deficile (CD) is anaerobic bacteria that consider as a normal intestinal micro flora. It is the primary cause of nosocomial diarrhea in industrialized countries. We herein hypothesized that fecal contamination in the soil results in a higher percentage of toxigenic strains of CD in topsoil and in areas with a large amount of animal fecal matter. Based on prior studies on survival rates of other microorganisms, we hypothesize that around 50% of the topsoil samples and only 20% of the subsoil samples will contain toxigenic strains of CDI.