Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) are able to colonise and infect domestic poultry and also pose a risk for humans. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of genotypic diversity among C. jejuni isolates recovered from avian and human sources in Egypt. Furthermore, the short variable region (SVR) of flagellin A (flaA) gene was analysed for the presence of allelic variants. Our results showed that C. jejuni isolates differ in their capacity to harbour each of the virulence genes alone or when present in various combinations. The flaA gene was detected in all C. jejuni strains and none of the strains had all the studied virulence genes together. When considering C. jejuni strains from the investigated sources, the cdtC gene was the most similar, while the cdtB and iam genes were the most dissimilar. We could identify 13 novel alleles in the analysed strains. The analyses of virulence gene patterns, flaA gene sequences and allelic variants showed that C. jejuni strains from different sources overlapped largely suggesting potential involvement of poultry in transmitting C. jejuni to humans. We also found that the strains isolated from the same host were highly heterogeneous, with chicken strains exhibiting the highest diversity. Moreover, the human strains were clustered closer to chicken ones than to those from pigeon. The results of this study should be taken into consideration when assessing the epidemiology and risk potential of Egyptian C. jejuni not only in poultry, but also in humans.
Highlights
Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is one of the most frequent bacterial causes of foodborne gastroenteritis worldwide (European Food Safety Authority, 2014)
Fourteen out of 90 (15.56%) chicken samples were positive for C. jejuni; 10 from 65 chicken meat (15.38%) and 4 from 25 cloacal swabs (16%), while the isolation rate of C. jejuni in pigeon droplets was 8.89% (16/180)
We analysed the genetic heterogeneity of Egyptian C. jejuni isolates recovered from avian and human sources
Summary
Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is one of the most frequent bacterial causes of foodborne gastroenteritis worldwide (European Food Safety Authority, 2014). It has been isolated from chickens, turkeys, pigeons and quails (Vazquez et al, 2010; Kovacic et al, 2013; Ramees et al, 2015), where they colonise the intestinal tract and could contaminate the carcasses during processing (e.g., defeathering and evisceration) (Hermans et al, 2011). Determining the extent of genetic heterogeneity of C. jejuni will tell about the disease burden in certain populations and will aid in predicting the potential source of infection (McCarthy et al, 2007); all are valuable information that can be delivered to surveillance and control programmes with an overarching goal of reducing the disease in poultry and its transmission to humans
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
