Urease-positive Thermophilic Campylobacter Research Articles

The effect of a new sewage treatment plant on faecal indicator numbers, campylobacters and bathing water compliance in Morecambe Bay.

Until recently, sewage from Morecambe was macerated, but otherwise untreated, and discharged at high water via a short outfall pipe into Morecambe Bay adjacent to a recognized bathing water. In March 1997, a new biological sewage treatment plant came on-line and the effluent was discharged via a longer outfall pipe into the Bay south of Heysham. The effect of the new sewage treatment on the quality of the bathing waters was monitored by testing sea water collected from the three EU designated bathing waters on Morecambe Bay: Morecambe North, Morecambe South and Heysham. After sewage treatment came on-line, the numbers of faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci were lower at Morecambe North and Morecambe South but higher at Heysham. Although the changes in numbers were not always statistically significant, they were sufficient to affect compliance with the EU Bathing Water Directive Imperative (mandatory) standards. Compliance improved markedly at Morecambe North and South but declined at Heysham, the closest bathing site to the new outfall. Numbers of thermophilic campylobacters were similar in both years, which is suggestive of their sources being different from those of the indicator bacteria. Campylobacter lari and urease-positive thermophilic campylobacters (UPTC) were the only species of Campylobacter isolated from Morecambe's bathing waters. Very low numbers of Salmonella were found, with Salm, arizonae the only species isolated.

Presence of Campylobacter and Salmonella in sand from bathing beaches.

The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. in sand from non-EEC standard and EEC standard designated beaches in different locations in the UK and to assess if potentially pathogenic strains were present. Campylobacter spp. were detected in 82/182 (45%) of sand samples and Salmonella spp. in 10/182 (6%). Campylobacter spp. were isolated from 46/92 (50%) of samples from non-EEC standard beaches and 36/90 (40%) from EEC standard beaches. The prevalence of Campylobacter spp. was greater in wet sand from both types of beaches but, surprisingly, more than 30% of samples from dry sand also contained these organisms. The major pathogenic species C. jejuni and C. coli were more prevalent in sand from non-EEC standard beaches. In contrast, C. lari and urease positive thermophilic campylobacters, which are associated with seagulls and other migratory birds, were more prevalent in sand from EEC standard beaches. Campylobacter isolates were further characterized by biotyping and serotyping, which confirmed that strains known to be of types associated with human infections were frequently found in sand on bathing beaches.

First finding of urease‐positive thermophilic strains of Campylobacter in river water in the Far East, namely, in Japan and their phenotypic and genotypic characterization

Two strains of urease‐positive thermophilic Campylobacter (UPTC), CF89–12 and CF89–14, which were identified as UPTC by biochemical characterization, were found for the first time in river water in the Far East, namely, in Japan. The biochemical characteristics were identical to those of strains described previously by Bolton and colleagues. Furthermore, these two strains were positive for arylsulphatase. Consequently, it was demonstrated that UPTC may possibly be differentiated phenotypically from Campylobacter lari by the arylsulphatase test, as well as urease and nalidixic acid tests. Analysis by pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) after digestion with Apa I, Sal I and Sma I, which were found to produce distributions of DNA fragments to be suitable for analysis of the genomic DNA from the thermophilic Campylobacter, respectively, demonstrated that these three restriction enzymes produced distributions of a relatively limited number of genomic DNA fragments and also demonstrated that the PFGE profiles obtained with the three restriction enzymes were indistinguishable between the two strains, respectively. The PFGE analysis and conventional fixed‐field agarose gel electrophoresis suggested that the both genomes were approximately 1862 kb in length. Even though the two isolates of UPTC were isolated from water in different rivers in Japan, the results suggested that a single strain. as opposed to two distinct strains, was isolated. PFGE profiles after digestion with Sal I and Sma I, respectively, were also demonstrated to be distinctly different among strains isolated in Japan and previously in Europe. This is the first example of the isolation of UPTC from natural sources in countries other than those in Europe.

Urease-positive thermophilic Campylobacter isolated from human blood

Urease-positive thermophilic Campylobacter isolated from human blood

Antigenic conservation of the ureases of spiral- and helical-shaped bacteria colonising the stomachs of man and animals.

A monoclonal antibody, CP11, has been produced which is directed against the ureas of Campylobacter pylori. This antibody has been used to look for antigenic cross-reactivity, in other ureolytic and non-ureolytic campylobacters, by immunohistological techniques. It has also been used to investigate the helical-shaped organisms found in the stomach of the human, monkey and cat (CS1) and the ileum of the rat (ST1). Interestingly the antibody cross-reacted with the gastric helical organisms from the human, monkey and cat but not with the rat helical organism. No cross-reactivity was observed with C. mustelae or the other ureolytic campylobacters, C. nitrofigilis and the urease positive thermophilic campylobacters. These results are discussed in relation to the phylotaxonomy of these organisms.

Cellular fatty acid composition of Campylobacter pylori from primates and ferrets compared with those of other campylobacters

The cellular fatty acid profiles of newly described campylobacters were determined on a polar, capillary column. Six isolates of the gastric spiral organism, Campylobacter pylori subsp. mustelae, from ferrets from Australia, England, and the United States were all found to have a similar fatty acid profile which was different from that of C. pylori from humans; C. pylori subsp. mustelae did not have 3-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (3-OH C18:0) and had much less tetradecanoic acid (C14:0) and much more hexadecanoic acid (C16:0). Inasmuch as Lambert et al. (M.A. Lambert, C.M. Patton, T.J. Barrett, and C.W. Moss, J. Clin. Microbiol. 25:706-713, 1987) have proposed that campylobacters can be grouped by cellular fatty acid composition, we propose this organism should be in a new gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) group, group J. Seven isolates of gastric spiral organisms from macaque monkeys and baboons, including three from Macaca nemestrina, and one isolate from a pig were found to have fatty acid profiles very similar to that of C. pylori; but a second type of organism (type B) from M. nemestrina had a unique profile without 19-carbon cyclopropane fatty acid (C19:0 cyc) but with 3-hydroxy tetradecanoic acid (OH C14:0), which is not present in other gastric spiral bacteria. We propose that this organism (nemestrina type B) should be in a new GLC group, group K. The cellular fatty acid profile of seven isolates of C. jejuni subsp. doylei was found to be similar to that for C. jejuni, but with possibly significant differences in that the former did not have 3-OH C14:0 but did have 3-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid (3-OH C16:0) and had more C14:0 than did C. jejuni. Two strains of urease-positive thermophilic campylobacters were found to have a profile similar to that of "C. cinaedi" and thus should be included with them in GLC group D. We confirm that C. sputorum has a unique cellular fatty acid composition and suggest that it should be in a new group, group H.

Numerical analysis of electrophoretic protein patterns of Campylobacter laridis and allied thermophilic campylobacters from the natural environment.

Twenty-one strains comprising Campylobacter laridis (nine), nalidixic acid sensitive campylobacters (NASC) (four), and urease-positive thermophilic campylobacters (UPTC) (eight) were characterized by one-dimensional SDS-PAGE of cellular proteins. The UPTC and NASC strains included six from river water, two from mussels and four from sea water. The type strains of three other Campylobacter species were included for reference. The protein patterns, which contained 45-50 discrete bands, were highly reproducible and were used as the basis for two numerical analyses. In the first, which included all the protein bands, the 21 strains formed nine clusters at the 80% similarity (S) level. The typical C. laridis strains were restricted to two phenons (2 and 5); the atypical strains being distributed among the remaining phenons. In the second analysis, which excluded the principal protein bands (40-48.5 kD range), the 21 strains formed five clusters at the 80% S level. The typical C. laridis strains were relatively homogeneous and fell into a single phenon (2) within which two subgroups were discernable. The atypical strains were more heterogeneous with respect to background protein pattern, with representatives appearing in all five phenons. An electropherotyping scheme comprising six electropherotypes, and based on both analyses is proposed. The high within-group S level and separation from reference strains of Campylobacter in the second analysis, suggested that UPTC and NASC strains belonged within C. laridis possibly as biovars.

The use of picolinyl esters for the characterization of microbial lipids: application to the unsaturated and cyclopropane fatty acids of campylobacter species

Picolinyl esters have been recently introduced for the mass spectrometric structure determination of unsaturated and cyclopropane fatty acids. We have used these derivatives to characterize the unsaturated and cyclopropane acids of Campylobacter species. The principle unsaturated acids were shown to be 11-octadecenoic acid, with smaller amounts of 9-hexadecenoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid and 9, 11-octadecadienoic acid. The only cyclopropane acid present was cis 11, 12-methylene octadecanoic acid. There was no interspecific variation in the position of unsatu-ration or methylene bridges, even in the recently discovered gastric Campylobacter like organisms (GCLO) or the urease positive thermophilic Campylobacters (UPTC), the fatty acid profiles of which were consistent with their inclusion in the genus Campylobacter.