Comparison of Campylobacter Carriage Rates in Diarrheic and Healthy Pet Animals

Abstract

Summary To explore the clinical significance of campylobacter infections for dogs and cats we compared intestinal carriage rates for Campylobacter sp. between animals with gastroenteritis and healthy controls. We cultured fecal specimens of 405 diarrheic dogs and 203 cats as well as 71 asymptomatic dogs and 35 cats using a selective medium in addition to filtration on a non‐selective blood agar plate. We identified 224 campylobacter isolates using conventional phenotypic tests and DNA hybridization. There were 112 isolates, of C. upsaliensis, 43. C. jejuni and 69 other Campylobacter sp. For cats, there was no association between Campylobacter carriage and disease, irrespective of the animals age. For dogs older than 12 months there was also no difference in campylobacter carriage rates between diarrheic and healthy animals. However, in younger dogs 44 % of animals with diarrhea shed campylobacters in their feces, more than twice the rate in asymptomatic controls (21 %), a significant difference. C. jejuni and C. upsaliensis contributed equally to this association between diarrhea and campylobacter prevalence. The parallel use of two culture methods enabled us to show that the recovery of Campylobacter sp. by filtration may be less than optimal and that filtering is probably unsuitable as a reference method for culturing C. upsaliensis. Finally we found that almost half of the campylobacter isolates from cats belong to a phenotypically homogeneous group of strains closely resembling C. upsaliensis but hybridizing only weakly with C. upsaliensis DNA.

Longitudinal Study of the Excretion Patterns of Thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in Young Pet Dogs in Denmark

“…Furthermore, we found that isolation of C. jejuni was correlated with the age of the dogs, as the majority of C. jejuni strains were found in dogs under 1 year of age. Similar findings have been published in other studies of healthy dogs by Burnens et al (5) and by Moser et al (27). In humans, Lastovica and Engel (20) also found that C. jejuni predominated in children younger than a year, whereas C. upsaliensis was more common in older children.…”

“…Certainly, Campylobacter carriage in healthy pet dogs is common according to several studies in the last two decades, with reported carrier rates from 21 to 75% (4,5,12,16,27,29,35,40,42). The species distribution of isolates from dogs differs considerably between publications and years.…”

Pet Dogs and Chicken Meat as Reservoirs ofCampylobacterspp. in Barbados

“…Like other investigators, we found a high carriage rate for asymptomatic dogs (61), and in accordance with many others, there was no significant difference in isolation rates between healthy and diarrheic dogs (48,66,73,77). In contrast, Fleming (21) and Nair et al (59) found a higher prevalence in diarrheic dogs, and Burnens et al noted that this relationship only held true for younger dogs (9).…”

“…The species identified among our feline isolates were expected, as cats are established reservoirs of C. jejuni, C. upsaliensis, and C. helveticus (5,9,23,24,29). Such a high frequency of infection with C. helveticus (50%), however, could not be found in the literature.…”

Establishment of a non-human primate Campylobacter disease model for the pre-clinical evaluation of Campylobacter vaccine formulations

“…Intestinal carriage rates for Campylobacter spp. between dogs with gastroenteritis and healthy controls were compared [31]. For dogs older than 12 months, there was no difference in Campylobacter carriage rates between diarrheic and healthy animals.…”