Prevalence, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, Virulence and Genotyping of Campylobacter jejuni with a Special Reference to the Anti-Virulence Potential of Eugenol and Beta-Resorcylic Acid on Some Multi-Drug Resistant Isolates in Egypt

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis in humans worldwide. Contaminated chickens and their products are the main sources of human campylobacteriosis. Therefore, this study aimed to detect the genotypic and virulence genes‘ profiles of multi-drug resistant (MDR) C. jejuni isolates and to assess the effects of sub-inhibitory concentrations (SICs) of eugenol and beta-resorcylic acid on the virulence of avian MDR C. jejuni isolates. These isolates were clustered together with the human isolates via enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR) fingerprinting. A total of 345 samples were collected from human stool (100) and different chicken (245) samples in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Conventional phenotypic methods identified 113 isolates (32.8%) as C. jejuni, and all C. jejuni isolates were MDR and resistant to erythromycin and ampicillin. The genes virB11, wlaN, and flaA were detected in 52%, 36% and 100% strains, respectively. ERIC-PCR yielded 14 profiles and five main clusters. Interestingly, human and chicken C. jejuni isolates were clustered together in ERIC-PCR clusters II-V, which confirmed the genetic relatedness between the isolates from both origins. Beta-resorcylic acid and eugenol inhibited the invasion of C. jejuni isolates to chicken intestinal cells by 41.66–38.19% and 31.94–29.16%, respectively, and minimized the transcription of flaA, virB11, and wlaN genes in the tested isolates by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). In essence, eugenol and beta-resorcylic acid are promising natural antimicrobials for minimizing the virulence of MDR C. jejuni in chickens, thereby managing human campylobacteriosis.

Molecular Detection of Fluoroquinolone Resistance among Multidrug-, Extensively Drug-, and Pan-Drug-Resistant Campylobacter Species in Egypt

“…(57.1%) in samples recovered from chicken and human origins at Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. This is partially similar to a previous study carried out in Poland (54.4%) [ 27 ], but the levels were higher than those obtained in previous studies carried out in Egypt; 32.8% [ 10 ], 27.3% [ 28 ] and 7.6% [ 29 ]. Herein, Campylobacter spp.…”

“…Among our chicken samples, Campylobacter spp. were more prevalent among cloacal swabs and liver (88.6% each), which is higher than prevalences reported in a previous study carried out in Egypt (54.3% and 34.1%, respectively) [ 10 ]. In the current study, chicken franks and luncheon meats were Campylobacter negative (0% each), which is in complete agreement with a previous study conducted in Egypt [ 31 ].…”

“…It was announced that several worldwide crises were developed due to the wide spreading of resistant fungi [ 18 ] and bacteria such as MRSA, VRSA and Klebsiella spp., in addition to zoonotic foodborne pathogens including Campylobacter spp., Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium [ 10 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. The increasing antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp., especially to FQs, macrolides and tetracyclines, is of great importance to human health worldwide.…”

“…Campylobacteriosis is a self-limiting disease with symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains and watery or bloody diarrhea, but postinfection complications can occur such as Guillain–Barré syndrome, Miller Fisher syndrome and reactive arthritis in the case of immunocompromised patients [ 8 , 9 ]. In the majority of campylobacteriosis cases, antimicrobial treatment is not indicated, but in severe infections and immunocompromised persons, antimicrobials become of high importance [ 10 ]. Therefore, treatment failure in the severe cases may lead to death.…”

The Distribution of Campylobacter jejuni Virulence Genes in Genomes Worldwide Derived from the NCBI Pathogen Detection Database

“…It has a similar or higher discriminatory power than MLST, especially in short-term and localized epidemiological investigations [58][59][60][61]. Punctual studies from multiple places worldwide have reported a high prevalence of flagellin A and B in C. jejuni [62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71].…”