Role of Poultry Meat in Sporadic Campylobacter Infections in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Laboratory-based Study

Abstract

Aim To investigate genetic diversity and specificity of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains isolated from humans, retail poultry meat, and live farm chickens in Zenica-Doboj Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and identify the role of poultry meat in sporadic Campylobacter infections.Methods We determined the type of Campylobacter species using standard microbiological methods and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and performed pulsed field gel-electrophoresis (PFGE) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing of the flaA gene to investigate genetic diversity among the isolates.Results We isolated C jejuni and C coli from 75 (5.2%) of 1453 samples of consecutive outpatients with sporadic diarrhea; from 51 (34.7%) of 147 samples of poultry meat; and from 15 out of 23 farm chicken samples. The proportion of C coli found among human (30.1%), poultry meat (56.9%), and farm chicken isolates (53.3%), was greater than the proportion of C jejuni. Fourteen and 24 PFGE genotypes were identified among 20 C coli and 37 C jejuni isolates, respectively. Identical PFGE genotypes were found in two cases of human and poultry meat isolates and two cases of poultry meat and farm chicken isolates.Conclusion Only a minority of human Campylobacter isolates shared identical PFGE type with poultry meat isolates. Although poultry is the source of a certain number of human infections, there may be other more important sources. Further research is required to identify the environmental reservoir of Campylobacter spp responsible for causing human disease and the reason for the high prevalence of C coli human infections in this region.

Bacteriological and Molecular Identification of Campylobacter Species in Chickens and Humans, at Zagazig City, Egypt

“…The Campylobacter species were isolated from 30.8% and 38.5% of the examined breast and thigh meat samples respectively. Comparable the occurrence of Campylobacter in chicken meat was reported in Bosnia (Uzunovic-Kamberovic et al, 2007) and Egypt (Saad, 2014). However, higher isolation rates were obtained by different studies in Iran (Zendehbad et al, 2013) and Poland (Wieczorek et al, 2013).…”

Prevalence of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. in broilers at retail in the Czech Republic and their antibiotic resistance

“…These were mostly chilled poultry samples which accounted for 11 of the 16 cases. Data concerning dual contamination of a single sample could not be found in the literature, with the exception of a study by Uzunovi c-Kamberovi c, Zorman, Heyndrickx, and Smole Mozina (2007) reporting C. jejuni and C. coli coinfection in only 2% of poultry at retail in Bosnia and Herzegovina.…”

Poultry as a Host for the Zoonotic PathogenCampylobacter jejuni

“…Initial colonization of broiler chickens probably occurs through horizontal transmission from the environment, whereas vertical transmission from breeder hens or carryover of infection from a positive flock to a new flock in the same house, after cleansing and disinfection, are considered to be unlikely (van de Giessen et al 1992, Jacobs-Reitsma et al 1995, Bull et al 2006, Patriarchi et al 2011. Indeed, carryover of C. jejuni subtypes between broiler flocks in the same house seems to occur only rarely (Barrios et al 2006, Colles et al 2008, McDowell et al 2008.…”

“…The remainder of the speciated isolates included other (unknown) species. Regional or country differences, however, do exist: in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for instance, a higher prevalence of C. coli in sporadic human infections (30%) has been noted (Uzunović-Kamberović et al 2007). …”