Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni is regarded as the leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis around the world. Even though it is generally considered to be a sensitive microaerobic pathogen, it is able to survive in the environment outside of the intestinal tract of the host. This study aimed to assess the impact of selected environmental parameters on the survival of 14 C. jejuni isolates of different origins, including 12 water isolates. The isolates were tested for their antibiotic resistance, their ability to survive at low temperature (7°C), develop aerotolerance, and to interact with the potential protozoan host Acanthamoeba polyphaga. The antibiotic susceptibility was determined by standard disk diffusion according to EUCAST. Out of the 14 isolates, 8 were resistant to ciprofloxacin (CIP) and 5 to tetracycline (TET), while only one isolate was resistant to erythromycin (ERY). Five isolates were resistant to two different antibiotic classes. Tetracycline resistance was only observed in isolates isolated from wastewater and a clinical sample. Further, the isolates were tested for their survival at 7°C under both aerobic and microaerobic conditions using standard culture methods. The results showed that under microaerobic conditions, all isolates maintained their cultivability for 4 weeks without a significant decrease in the numbers of bacteria and variation between the isolates. However, significant differences were observed under aerobic conditions (AC). The incubation led to a decrease in the number of cultivable cells, with complete loss of cultivability after 2 weeks (one water isolate), 3 weeks (7 isolates), or 4 weeks of incubation (6 isolates). Further, all isolates were studied for their ability to develop aerotolerance by repetitive subcultivation under microaerobic and subsequently AC. Surprisingly, all isolates were able to adapt and grow under AC. As the last step, 5 isolates were selected to evaluate a potential protective effect provided by A. polyphaga. The cocultivation of isolates with the amoeba resulted in the survival of about 40% of cells treated with an otherwise lethal dose of gentamicin. In summary, C. jejuni is able to adapt and survive in a potentially detrimental environment for a prolonged period of time, which emphasizes the role of the environmental transmission route in the spread of campylobacteriosis.
Highlights
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the main bacterial causes of gastroenteritis in Europe, with about 300,000 reported cases per year (EFSA, 2021)
Isolates of C. jejuni collected from different water sources located all over the Czechia were subjected to the standard disk diffusion method according to EUCAST
14 isolates of C. jejuni were selected for further analyses, 12 of them being originally isolated from surface water in the Czechia
Summary
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the main bacterial causes of gastroenteritis in Europe, with about 300,000 reported cases per year (EFSA, 2021). The infection by this pathogen usually leads to the development of gastroenteritis (campylobacteriosis) with fever, abdominal pain, dysentery, and nausea. The illness is self-limiting with a duration varying from a few days to weeks (Horrocks et al, 2009; Silva et al, 2011) In some cases, such as in immunocompromised people, C. jejuni can be a precursor of autoimmune diseases, such as GuillainBarré syndrome, reactive arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease (Rees et al, 1995; Ang et al, 2001; Ternhag et al, 2008). Most of the outbreaks have been attributed to the consumption of untreated groundwater
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