Patients living near livestock farms are more likely to arrive at hospital colonised with toxigenic C. difficile than those who live further away, US findings show.

Researchers evaluated the association of environmental factors with the likelihood of being colonised with C. diff at hospital admission.

Overall, one in 10 of the 3043 patients studied were colonised with C. diff when they were admitted to a teaching-affiliated hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

One-third of patients colonised had been hospitalised in the preceding six months, compared with 23% of those who had not been colonised.