Abstract
The genus Arcobacter includes species considered emerging food and waterborne pathogens. Despite Arcobacter has been linked to the presence of faecal pollution, few studies have investigated its prevalence in wastewater, and the only isolated species were Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus. This study aimed to establish the prevalence of Arcobacter spp. at a WWTP using in parallel two culturing methods (direct plating and culturing after enrichment) and a direct detection by m-PCR. In addition, the genetic diversity of the isolates was established using the ERIC-PCR genotyping method. Most of the wastewater samples (96.7%) were positive for Arcobacter and a high genetic diversity was observed among the 651 investigated isolates that belonged to 424 different ERIC genotypes. However, only few strains persisted at different dates or sampling points. The use of direct plating in parallel with culturing after enrichment allowed recovering the species A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, Arcobacter thereius, Arcobacter defluvii, Arcobacter skirrowii, Arcobacter ellisii, Arcobacter cloacae, and Arcobacter nitrofigilis, most of them isolated for the first time from wastewater. The predominant species was A. butzleri, however, by direct plating predominated A. cryaerophilus. Therefore, the overall predominance of A. butzleri was a bias associated with the use of enrichment.
Highlights
The genus Arcobacter is included together with Campylobacter and Helicobacter in the family Campylobacteraceae, and all of these genera include species that might be pathogenic to humans and animals [1, 2]
Despite Arcobacter has been linked to the presence of faecal pollution, few studies have investigated its prevalence in wastewater, and the only isolated species were Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus
Most of the wastewater samples (96.7%) were positive for Arcobacter and a high genetic diversity was observed among the 651 investigated isolates that belonged to 424 different ERIC genotypes
Summary
The genus Arcobacter is included together with Campylobacter and Helicobacter in the family Campylobacteraceae, and all of these genera include species that might be pathogenic to humans and animals [1, 2]. Arcobacter butzleri is the fourth most common Campylobacter-like organism isolated from the stool of human patients with diarrhoea in two independent studies carried out in France [3] and Belgium [4]. It has been demonstrated that the presence of Arcobacter in water correlates with the presence of faecal pollution [2] In this sense, Arcobacter has been recovered in three outbreaks in which drinking water was contaminated with sewage ([2] and references therein). The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods has defined A. butzleri as a serious hazard to human health [6], and it has been identified as an important zoonotic agent to humans and animals ([2] and references therein)
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