Changes in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli Carriage Rates in the Zenica Canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Pre- and Postwar Periods

Role of Poultry Meat in Sporadic Campylobacter Infections in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Laboratory-based Study

“…An interesting epidemiological feature of human Campylobacter infections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been noted since 1991, is the high prevalence of C coli in both asymptomatic carriers and diarrheic patients, comprising 36% and 26% of thermotolerant Campylobacter isolates, respectively, when the identification of species was based on the hippurate test (16).…”

Some epidemiologic features of Campylobacter jejuni/coli infections in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war

“…Muslims now account for 82.3% of the population (estimate of ethnicity structures by Institute of Statistics Federation B&H), so the consumption of pork, customarily associated with C. coli infection, is almost non‐existent in this region. Nevertheless, a high proportion of C. coli appears in this study, as in the prewar period [3], suggesting that the primary source of C. coli infections in this region was the same before and after the war, and might be something other than pigs. An individual well‐water supply was identified as a possible source of C. coli infections in the Central African Republic [2].…”

“…are recognized as some of the most important enteropathogens in both industrialized and developing countries [1,2]. It has previously been reported that people in the Zenica region of Bosnia have high carriage rates of C. coli [3], and this prompted us to carry out a survey to determine the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. causing diarrhea in this region and the distribution among patients by demographic features.…”

“…In this study, C. coli accounted for 26.5% of all isolates (71.4% rural isolates, and 28.6% urban isolates). Such a high percentage of C. coli has been reported only in the Central African Republic (39%), Croatia (54%), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (36%) [2,3,11]. One of the consequences of population migration during the war was the change in ethnic structure in the Zenica‐Doboj Canton population.…”

“…Although the campylobacter isolation rate in this study was low, as in other developed countries, the high proportion of infection in children under 6 years of age in the urban zone is an epidemiologic feature also seen in developing countries. The fact that all isolates (with a single exception) in a campylobacter carriage survey in the prewar period were isolated from the rural population [3] suggests that the situation presented in this paper may be one of the effects of the war. This study shows that the environmental transmission cycle of Campylobacter spp.…”