Prevalence ofCampylobacter jejuniand its Resistance to Antibiotics in Poultry in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp., in particular Campylobacter jejuni, are among the most frequently identified pathogens, found to be causing human gastrointestinal infections in Europe, with the Czech Republic being no exception. The presented work aimed at assessing results of the first nationwide monitoring of prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter spp. in broiler flocks in the Czech Republic, including a comparison of antibiotic resistance of C. jejuni isolates collected from poultry and the human community. The monitoring was carried out in poultry slaughterhouses in 2006 and 2007. From broilers, cloacal swabs were collected and examined. The human isolates of C. jejuni were acquired from rectal swabs in community patients with diarrhoeal diseases. Suspected isolates of both animal and human origin were confirmed by the PCR methods. Antibiotic resistance to selected anti-microbial agents was tested by the microdilution method. In the monitored period, the prevalence of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. in broilers in the Czech Republic reached almost 50%. In 2006, C. jejuni was detected in 46% and Campylobacter coli in 3% of the tested samples. In 2007, C. jejuni was found in 43% and C. coli in 2% of the samples. The results of anti-microbial susceptibility testing of C. jejuni showed higher resistance in animals when compared with humans. The only exception was tetracycline with higher resistance in isolates of human origin. The highest resistance detected was to quinolone antibiotics. Resistance to oxolinic acid was 77% in animal and 60% in human isolates, to ciprofloxacin 72% in isolates from poultry and 55% in those from humans. In ampicillin, 26% of poultry isolates and 16% of human isolates were resistant. Moreover, 9% of animal isolates demonstrated resistance to streptomycin, undetected in human isolates. In erythromycin, resistance was found in 6% of poultry and 1% of human isolates.

Prevalence, strain identification and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. isolated from slaughtered pig carcasses in Brazil

“…strains isolated from animal products has been reported in different countries such as Italy (Pezzotti et al, 2003), Denmark (Alban, Nielsen, & Dahl, 2008), Korea (Shin & Lee, 2007), Sweden (Rönner et al, 2004), the United States (Olah, Doetkottb, Fakhra, & Loguea, 2006), the United Kingdom (Little, Richardson, Owen, Pinna, & Threlfall, 2008), Austria (Mayrhofer et al, 2004), Australia (Miflin, Templeton, & Blackall, 2007), Czech Republic (Bardon et al, 2009) and Canada (Guévremont et al, 2006;Inglis et al, 2005).…”

“…represent the major potential causes of food-borne diseases in humans (Franchin, Aidoo, & Batista, 2005;Ghafir, China, Dierick, De Zutter, & Daube, 2007). Although Salmonella has been associated with most cases of foodborne gastroenteritis in past several years, in the last decade, Campylobacter has appeared as the leading cause of acute enteritis in humans in industrialized countries (Bardon, Kolar, Cekanova, Hejnar, & Koukalova, 2009;Ghafir et al, 2007;Guévremont, Nadeau, Sirois, & Quessy, 2006;Humphrey, O'Brien, & Madsen, 2007;Pezzotti et al, 2003;Suzuki & Yamamoto, 2009). …”

Resistance to erythromycin of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolated from animals and humans

“…A low level of resistance to erythromycin was registered in Great Britain (0 to 8%), USA (3.1%) and Czech Republic (6%) (Bardon et al, 2009;Bywater et al, 2004;Hariharan et al, 2009). Engberg et al (2004) reported 2% C. jejuni and 18.5% C. coli strains resistant to erythromycin.…”

Joint Opinion on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) focused on zoonotic infections

“…In this report 57% of the isolates were resistant to erythromycin. A Czech study comparing isolates from poultry and humans by microdilution, reported higher resistance among Campylobacter from animals, with the latter showing 6% resistance to erythromycin compared to 1% for human isolates (Bardon, J et al, 2009). In bivalve molluscs harvested in Thailand, 72-84% were resistant to erythromycin by E-test, highlighting the importance of aquaculture as a reservoir for these antimicrobial-resistant pathogens (Soonthornchaikul, N and Garelick, H, 2009).…”