A short communication article: A Clostridioides difficile surveillance study of Canadian retail meat samples from 2016-2018

In this study, we isolated and molecularly characterized 10 (1.6%) C. difficile isolates from 644 commercially available raw meat samples. Molecular typing by PFGE and ribotyping revealed NAP and ribotypes commonly associated with human clinical cases, suggesting retail meat could be a possible source of transmission warranting further investigation. • C. difficile was isolated from 1.6% of retail meat samples of various commodities. • All 10 C. difficile isolates from retail meat was toxigenic. • Molecular strain types of C. difficile from retail meat matched human clinical isolates. • Resistance to tested antimicrobials was low for C. difficile isolated from retail meat.