Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. isolated from retail chicken and duck meat in South Korea

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter isolates from chicken and duck meat in South Korea. A total of 149 Campylobacter spp. was isolated and 124 (66.7%) isolates were identified as Campylobacter jejuni, 24 (12.9%) isolates as Campylobacter coli, and one was unidentified. There were 102 isolates from retail duck meat with the isolation rate of 96.2%, which was significant higher (p < 0.05) than 47 isolates from 80 of chicken meat with the isolation rate of 58.8%. Campylobacter isolation rates ranged from 83.3% to 100.0% among traditional markets, wholesale markets and supermarkets; whereas the isolation rate from online store (50.0%) was significantly lower (p < 0.01) than the traditional markets, wholesale markets and supermarkets. Resistance to nalidixic acid, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin was most common both for chicken and duck Campylobacter isolates. All 24 C. coli isolates were resistant to tetracycline. Campylobacter isolates from duck had higher antibiotics resistant rates to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, nalidixic acid and tetracycline, than chickens. The majority of the Campylobacter isolates were classified as multi-drug resistant, 57.1% of the C. jejuni isolates and 70.9% C. coli isolates were resistant to at least four antibiotics tested in this study. One C. jejuni isolate showed resistance to all eight antibiotics tested in this study. Our results show that retail chicken and duck meat has a high prevalence of Campylobacter, and the high prevalence of resistant and multi-drug resistant Campylobacter in retail chicken and duck meat is a potential campylobacteriosis risk for humans living in South Korea.