Prevalence of Putative Virulence Genes in Campylobacter and Arcobacter Species Isolated from Poultry and Poultry By-Products in Tunisia

Abstract

Campylobacter and Arcobacter spp. are common causes of gastroenteritis in humans; these infections are commonly due to undercooked poultry. However, their virulence mechanism is still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of genotypic virulence markers in Campylobacter and Arcobacter species using PCR. The prevalence of virulence and cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) genes was estimated in 71 Campylobacteraceae isolates. PCR was used to detect the presence of virulence genes (iam, cadF, virB1, flaA, cdtA, cdtB, and cdtC) using specific primers for a total of 45 Campylobacter isolates, including 37 C. jejuni and 8 C. coli. All the Campylobacter isolates were positive for the cadF gene. The plasmid gene virB11 was not detected in any strain. The invasion associated marker was not detected in C. jejuni. Lower detection rates were observed for flaA, cdtA, cdtB, and cdtC. The presence of nine putative Arcobacter virulence genes (cadF, ciaB, cj1349, mviN, pldA, tlyA, irgA, hecA, and hecB) was checked in a set of 22 Arcobacter butzleri and 4 Arcobacter cryaerophilus isolates. The pldA and mviN genes were predominant (88.64%). Lower detection rates were observed for tlyA (84.76%), ciaB (84.61%), cadF and cj1349 (76.92%), IrgA and hecA (61.53%), and hecB (57.69%). The findings revealed that a majority of the Campylobacteraceae strains have these putative virulence genes that may lead to pathogenic effects in humans.

Antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes profiles of Arcobacter butzleri strains isolated from back yard chickens and retail poultry meat in Chile

“…These results should be interpreted with caution, since as some researchers have pointed out, the nucleotide sequence heterogeneity of those genes and PCR biases could provide false-negative results with the consequent underestimation of their prevalence (Fanelli et al 2019;Isidro et al 2020). However, our data from retail poultry strains were in agreement with those of previous studies developed around the world, and the genes cadF, ciaB, cj1349, mviN, pldA and tlyA were very common in strains isolated from poultry meat (Douidah et al 2012;Girbau et al 2015;Zacharow et al 2015;Jribi et al 2017;Oliveira et al 2018). Interestingly, in those studies, the hecA, hecB and irgA genes were also the ones that were detected less frequently, the same as in our retail poultry strains.…”

Virulence typing and antibiotic susceptibility profiling of thermophilic Campylobacters isolated from poultry, animal, and human species

“…[40], and Jribi et al . [41] also, in fact, did not find the presence of vir B11 gene. The pld A gene was also detected in 36.84% isolates.…”

Molecular characterization of Arcobacter butzleri isolates from poultry in rural Ghana

“…In Africa, Arcobacter spp. have been isolated from poultry in Egypt ( Hassan, 2017 ), from poultry slaughterhouse effluent waste and live poultry in Nigeria ( Amisu et al., 2003 ; Adesiji et al., 2011 ) as well as chicken meat in Tunisia ( Jribi et al., 2017 ). Arcobacter has also been detected in approximately 11% of diarrhea patients in South Africa by PCR ( Samie et al., 2007 ).…”