Dissemination of Fluoroquinolone-Resistant Campylobacter spp. within an Integrated Commercial Poultry Production System

Abstract

. The sequences exhibited high levels of similarity to Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli sequences, suggesting that chickens can carry Campylobacter at a very young age. Campylobacter sp. was detected by PCR in all samples collected from the ilea of chicks that were 3 to 49 days old; however, it was detected only in the cecal contents of chickens that were at least 21 days old. In order to determine whether the presence of Campylobacter DNA in young chicks was due to ingestion of the bacteria in food or water, we obtained commercial broiler hatching eggs, which were incubated in a research facility until the chicks hatched. DNA sequencing of the amplicons resulting from Campylobacter-specific 16S PCR performed with the ileal, cecal, and yolk contents of the day-of-hatching chicks revealed that Campylobacter DNA was present before the chicks consumed food or water. The 16S rRNA sequences exhibited 99% similarity to C. jejuni and C. coli sequences and 95 to 98% similarity to sequences of other thermophilic Campylobacter species, such as C. lari and C. upsaliensis. The presence of C. coli DNA was detected by specific PCR in the samples from chicks obtained from a commercial hatchery; however, no Campylobacter was detected by culturing. In order to determine whether the same strains of bacteria were present in multiple levels of the integrator, we cultured Campylobacter sp. from a flock of broiler breeders and their 6-week-old progeny that resided on a commercial broiler farm. The broiler breeders had been given fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and we sought to determine whether the same fluoroquinolone-resistant strain was present in their progeny. The isolates were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, which confirmed that the parental and progeny flocks contained the same strain of fluoroquinolone-resistant C. coli. These data indicate that resistant C. coli can be present in multiple levels of an integrated poultry system and demonstrated that molecular techniques or more sensitive culture methods may be necessary to detect early colonization by Campylobacter in broiler chicks.

Evidence for Horizontal and Vertical Transmission in Campylobacter Passage from Hen to Her Progeny

“…Maruyama and Katsube in 1990 (55) demonstrated that Campylobacter could be transmitted to the offspring via the fertile egg after orally inoculating Japanese quail breeder hens. These findings were supported further by Idris et al (44).…”

A Systematic Review Characterizing On-Farm Sources of Campylobacter spp. for Broiler Chickens

“…egg surface contamination) however it seems that this research is still hampered by the sensitivity of isolation and genotyping techniques, which will be discussed later. Meta-analysis of two studies associated the hatchery source to Campylobacter colonization at the broiler level (OR = 4.8) [40], [41] and Idris et al demonstrated identical resistance patterns in the breeders and broilers [34]. Previous reviews that looked at vertical transmission concluded this was a low risk exposure route for Campylobacter in broilers [12], [13], however based on the evidence identified in this SR there is evidence that vertical transfer occurs and due to well documented isolation issues, we cannot conclude on the relative importance of this source compared to others.…”

Time of Entry of Salmonella and Campylobacter into the Turkey Brooder House

“…(Wallace et al 1998). However, recently, 16S rDNAs with ∼99% homology to C. jejuni and C. coli were detected in the ilea, yolk sac, and ceca of day-old chicks, which were culture-negative, suggesting either primary vertical transmission or transmission through the porous egg shell during incubation at the hatchery (Callicott et al 2006;Idris et al 2006;Pearson et al 1996).…”