Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence-Associated Genes ofCampylobacterspp. Isolated from Raw Milk, Fish, Poultry, and Red Meat

Abstract

This study was designed and conducted to evaluate the frequency, antimicrobial resistance, and presence of six virulence-associated genes among thermophilic Campylobacters isolated from raw milk, poultry (chicken, turkey, and duck), fish, cattle, and sheep meat. Out of 590 samples, which were recovered from different origins, 141 (23.9%) samples were positive for Campylobacters. Campylobacter spp. was isolated in 40.8% (106/260), 14% (28/200), and 8.7% (7/80) of poultry meat, red meat, and milk samples, respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility test indicated a high frequency of resistance to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and nalidixic acid among the isolates. Furthermore, prevalence of waaC, ciaB, and pldA genes were 91.7%, 86.7%, and 80.8%, respectively; and, none of the isolates harbored both wlaN and cgtB genes, simultaneously. Moreover, there was a weak correlation between antibiotics resistance and presence of the pathogen genes. However, the existence of Campylobacter spp. isolates in food animal products, with high resistance to antibiotics and several virulence gene possessions, is alarming and increases the attention to the widespread use of antibiotics.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence-Associated Traits of Campylobacter jejuni Isolated From Poultry Food Chain and Humans With Diarrhea

“…Other genes involved in stress response and invasiveness, which are important for Campylobacter survival in the intestinal tract ( sodB and ciaB ), were in a high prevalence among all strains analyzed in the current study (99.4 and 98.4% of the isolates; including all positive C. jejuni of human origin). The product of the ciaB marker, which play a role both in the invasiveness and in colonization of the epithelial cells, was identified in campylobacters by other authors either in a lower percentage (Ziprin et al, 2001 ; Hanning et al, 2010 ) or in similar one to the present study (Raeisi et al, 2017 ). Since the ciaB and sodB genes are important in the initial stages of colonization, the high prevalence of these markers in C. jejuni currently tested, especially among strains isolated from humans with diarrhea, may suggest that these bacteria were able to overcome the stress conditions during passage through the intestinal tract and then induce the disease.…”

“…Erythromycin is the drug of choice for the treatment of C. jejuni infections and resistance levels observed in all isolates regardless the origin were very low (0.8% resistant strains in total). The percentage of macrolide-resistant isolates recovered previously from poultry chain was usually also low but higher than obtained in the present investigation, and ranged from 2.2 to 26.0% (Han et al, 2016 ; Lapierre et al, 2016 ; Mäesaar et al, 2016 ; Ladely et al, 2017 ; Raeisi et al, 2017 ). Analyzes of such isolates in Poland demonstrated that erythromycin resistant levels among C. jejuni were rather low, from 0% (Wieczorek et al, 2013b ; Wieczorek and Osek, 2015 ; Wozniak-Biel et al, 2018 ), 2.4% (Wieczorek et al, 2015 ), 3.0% (Andrzejewska et al, 2015 ) to 3.3% (Szczepanska et al, 2017 ).…”

“…It may suggest that poultry can serve as important reservoir of such strains for humans. Recent studies also indicated that C. jejuni of poultry sources were often resistant to tetracycline at the rates from 32.3% of the isolates in Chile (Lapierre et al, 2016 ), 75.5% in Iran (Raeisi et al, 2017 ), 79.4% in China (Han et al, 2016 ) up to 83.5% in the USA (Ladely et al, 2017 ). Investigations performed earlier in Poland showed different resistance levels to this antimicrobial, ranging from 9.0% (Rozynek et al, 2008 ), 31.1% (Wieczorek et al, 2015 ), 42.3% (Andrzejewska et al, 2015 ), 46.5% (Wieczorek and Osek, 2015 ), 51.1% (Szczepanska et al, 2017 ) up to even 100% of C. jejuni tested (Wozniak-Biel et al, 2018 ).…”

Antibiotic Susceptibility, Genetic Diversity, and the Presence of Toxin Producing Genes in Campylobacter Isolates from Poultry

“…Raeisi et al [ 40 ] showed that Campylobacter isolates from poultry were resistant to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and nalidixic acid. Also, 100% of C. jejuni isolates ( n = 31) from chicken in China had resistance to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid [ 41 ].…”

Consumption of minas frescal cheese may be a source of human infection by Campylobacter jejuni

“…The ciaB gene encodes a protein involved in cell invasion and survival (GOMES et al, 2018) and is considered as a reference in the study of pathogenicity of Campylobacter spp. (ZHENG et al,2006;RAEISI et al, 2017). Percentually, IAL strain showed higher transcripts production capacity for this gene than the NCTC strain on day 1, reinforcing its greatest potential to cause disease, even in adverse conditions.…”