A severe case of persistent diarrhoea associated with Arcobacter cryaerophilus but attributed to Campylobacter sp. and a review of the clinical incidence of Arcobacter spp

Abstract

Although rarely, Arcobacter spp. have been associated with diarrhoea and bacteraemia. We report a persistent case in a healthy 26-year-old Spanish male of bloody diarrhoea, which was attributed to Campylobacter but in fact was caused by Arcobacter cryaerophilus , as determined by sequencing of the rpoB gene. The isolate was re-identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) and genotyped for five putative virulence genes and for seven genes included in the Arcobacter multilocus sequence typing database. The low score obtained by MALDI-TOF indicates the need to complement the database with more isolates. Only the ciaB gene, which encodes for an invasin, was detected. Despite the isolate belonging to a new sequence type, three of the alleles ( glnA , pgm and tkt ) had been found previously in isolates from faeces of patients with diarrhoea. This study, together with the reviewed literature, indicates that Arcobacter can produce bacteraemia and that the isolation from patients with diarrhoea range from 0.11% to 1.25%. This study also demonstrates that Arcobacter species are confused with Campylobacter spp., as previously suggested. This is one of the factors that leads to underestimation of their incidence together with the use of inappropriate detection and identification methods.

Genotyping and genetic diversity ofArcobacter butzleriandArcobacter cryaerophilusisolated from different sources by using ERIC-PCR from India

“…Arcobacters have been associated with enteritis, mastitis and metritis in livestock animals and poultry (Lerner et al 1994;Houf et al 2002;Collado & Figueras 2011;Ramees et al 2014). To date, 18 species of arcobacters have been documented and among these a wide genetic diversity has been reported, which reflects continuous evolving and emerging nature of these pathogens (Collado & Figueras 2011;Figueras et al 2012;Sasi Jyothsna et al 2013;Figueras et al 2014). For studying genetic diversities and genotyping of bacterial pathogens, several tools are available like Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), Repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensusÀpolymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR), sequencing-based methods (Sanger method and pyrosequencing) and phylogenetic analysis (Rivas et al 2004;Merga et al 2011;Yıldırım et al 2011;Bagalakote et al 2014).…”

Bacteremia Caused by Arcobacter butzleri in an Immunocompromised Host

“…(2); however, the genus was formally proposed in 1991 (3). At present, the Arcobacter genus contains 20 different species identified from environmental, animal, and human sources, of which three have been implicated in human disease: Arcobacter butzleri, Arcobacter cryaerophilus, and Arcobacter skirrowii (4)(5)(6). Optimal growth occurs at 30°C under microaerobic conditions, with a respiratory type of metabolism, although growth is possible under aerobic conditions at temperatures ranging from 15°C to 37°C (1).…”

Arcobacter

“…It is therefore likely that temperature acts as the most important selective pressure in Arcobacter vs. Campylobacter culture. On this basis, recovery of Arcobacter from traditional Campylobacter media (Bolton and Preston broths) is not surprising and has been reported (Diergaardt et al, 2004;Merga et al, 2011;Figueras et al, 2014;Banting et al, 2016). Arcobacter is routinely cultured at 20 to 37°C under aerobic or microaerophilic conditions, with the most frequent temperature being 30°C, while Campylobacter spp.…”

“…The first cases date back to 1992 when an outbreak of recurrent abdominal cramps associated with Arcobacter butzleri was described in an Italian school (Vandamme et al, 1992b). Since then relatively few studies have been published investigating the presence of Arcobacter in humans (reviewed in Collado and Figueras, 2011;Figueras et al, 2014;Arguello et al, 2015). Evidence exists to suggest that Arcobacter induces gastroenteritis, however the biological nature of its enteropathogenicity has yet to be clearly determined (reviewed in Collado and Figueras, 2011).…”