Abstract
Campylobacter enteritis in humans is primarily associated with C. jejuni/coli infection. Other species cause campylobacteriosis relatively infrequently; while this could be attributed to bias in diagnostic methods, the pathogenicity of non-jejuni/coli Campylobacter spp. such as C. upsaliensis and C. helveticus (isolated from dogs and cats) is uncertain. Galleria mellonella larvae are suitable models of the mammalian innate immune system and have been applied to C. jejuni studies. This study compared the pathogenicity of C. jejuni, C. upsaliensis, and C. helveticus isolates. Larvae inoculated with either C. upsaliensis or C. helveticus showed significantly higher survival than those inoculated with C. jejuni. All three Campylobacter species induced indistinguishable histopathological changes in the larvae. C. jejuni could be isolated from inoculated larvae up to eight days post-inoculation whereas C. upsaliensis and C. helveticus could only be isolated in the first two days. There was a significant variation in the hazard rate between batches of larvae, in Campylobacter strains, and in biological replicates as random effects, and in species and bacterial dose as fixed effects. The Galleria model is applicable to other Campylobacter spp. as well as C. jejuni, but may be subject to significant variation with all Campylobacter species. While C. upsaliensis and C. helveticus cannot be considered non-pathogenic, they are significantly less pathogenic than C. jejuni.
Highlights
Campylobacteriosis is one the most common bacterial gastrointestinal diseases in people worldwide and has mostly been associated with C. jejuni and C. coli infection [1]
The survival of control groups showed no difference with low bacterial doses of any Campylobacter spp.-inoculated larvae
These consistent histological changes in Campylobacter spp.-inoculated larvae and the clear differentiation from the changes in uninfected controls indicate that larvae as an infection model are suitable for C. upsaliensis and C. helveticus
Summary
Campylobacteriosis is one the most common bacterial gastrointestinal diseases in people worldwide and has mostly been associated with C. jejuni and C. coli infection [1]. Diagnostic methods are commonly optimised for the detection of C. jejuni/coli; many other Campylobacter spp. species are considered as under-reported, they are implicated as human pathogens, and are often referred to as ‘emerging’ pathogens [2,3]. C. upsaliensis is one of the leading emerging Campylobacter pathogens, as several studies worldwide have reported higher isolation rates from human campylobacteriosis cases than the rate of C. coli when suitable culture methods are applied [10].
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