Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common causes of human foodborne bacterial infections worldwide. The objective of this study was to assess the molecular diversity, using flaA sequencing, of 602 C. jejuni isolated from chicken food chain, i.e., chicken feces (n = 151), chicken carcasses (n = 150), chicken meat (n = 150), and from humans (n = 151) and to determine antimicrobial multiresistant profiles of the isolates as well as to analyze the relationship of the isolate genotypes with their antimicrobial resistance profiles and source of isolation. Multidrug resistant patterns were identified in 110 (18.3%) C. jejuni isolates recovered from all sources and most isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (CIP), nalidixic acid (NAL), streptomycin (STR), and tetracycline (TET) (92; 15.3%) or ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, and tetracycline (13; 2.2%). Only a few isolates were multiresistant to ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, tetracycline, and erythromycin (3; 0.5%) or ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline, and erythromycin (2; 0.3%). A total of 79 flaA-SVR subtypes were identified, including 40 (50.6%) unique to the isolates’ origins, with the most common sequence types 16, 54, 36, 34, and 287 which covered 56 (9.3%), 50 (8.3%), 48 (8.0%), 35 (5.8%), and 32 (5.3%) of C. jejuni isolates, respectively. It was found that 13 isolates had the novel flaA-SVR subtypes which were not present in the pubMLST database. These isolates were recovered from chicken feces (6 isolates), carcasses (2 isolates), meat (one isolate) and from humans (4 isolates). Multiresistant C. jejuni were classified into 26 different sequence subtypes. Among the most numerous multidrug resistant profile CIP+NAL+STR+TET 21 different flaA-SVR subtypes, with total of 92 isolates, were identified. Most of them were classified to 287 (18; 19.6% isolates), 100 (13; 14.1%), 34 (9; 9.8%), 208 (8; 8.7%), and 781 (8; 8.7%) molecular variants. Isolates resistant to CIP, STR and TET (13 isolates) were mainly from chicken feces (12 isolates) and classified into 5 flaA-SVR sequence types, with the most common 36 (8 isolates). The obtained results show a broad molecular diversity of multiresistant C. jejuni isolates and suggest chickens as a possible source of human Campylobacter infections in Poland.
Highlights
Campylobacter, especially Campylobacter jejuni, is one of the most common causes of foodborne bacterial infections worldwide (Allos, 2001; Bolton, 2015; Kaakoush et al, 2015; Tresse et al, 2017)
A total of 79 flagellin-encoding A (flaA)-short variable regions (SVRs) subtypes were identified, including 40 (50.6%) sequences unique to the isolates’ origin, with 15 sequences found only in C. jejuni from chicken feces, 12 subtypes in isolates from chicken carcasses, 7 sequences in chicken meat, and 6 subtypes detected only in isolates recovered from humans
On overlap of several genotypes found between chicken isolates recovered from different stages of the food chain may suggest that C. jejuni isolates with such allele types are circulating along the chicken meat production chain and may result in transmission of the bacteria to man
Summary
Campylobacter, especially Campylobacter jejuni, is one of the most common causes of foodborne bacterial infections worldwide (Allos, 2001; Bolton, 2015; Kaakoush et al, 2015; Tresse et al, 2017). C. jejuni colonizes chicken intestines at the number of 108 cells per gram of cecal contents or greater without causing disease (Beery et al, 1988; Sahin et al, 2002). Transmission from chickens to humans most commonly occurs through consumption and handling of chicken meat and meat products contaminated with these bacteria during slaughter and carcass processing (Kaakoush et al, 2015). It has been estimated that the chicken reservoir as a whole is estimated to be responsible for up to 80% of human campylobacteriosis cases (European Food Safety Authority [EFSA] and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [ECDC], 2018)
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