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Chicken carcasses from a supermarket and from a poultry abattoir were examined using methods designed to isolate as many strains of campylobacters and related organisms as possible. Strains of arcobacter, but no campylobacters, were isolated from every carcass after enrichment. Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni was isolated from all carcasses examined by direct plating and other Campylobacter‐like strains were isolated from nine out of 15 abattoir carcasses by direct plating but not after enrichment. Only the Camp. jejuni subsp. jejuni strains could be identified to species level using a readily available identification scheme and/or a commercial identification kit. Examination of caecal contents from the 15 abattoir poultry yielded Camp. jejuni subsp. jejuni and Campylobacter‐like strains from 15 and eight by direct plating, and from six and nine after enrichment, respectively. Four sites in the intestine of the abattoir birds (60 samples) were examined for arcobacters and only one strain was isolated. This indicates that arcobacters are probably not normal inhabitants of the poultry intestine. Poultry is a rich source of other campylobacteria besides the thermophilic Campylobacter spp.

Contamination of the poultry carcasses and minced beef meat, rectal and gall bladder samples of cattle with arcobacters poses a risk for both human and animal infections. Detection of several different Arcobacter strains may suggest multiple sources for contamination and infection.

Ninety-nine strains of Arcobacter spp., isolated from 10 chicken carcasses purchased from a supermarket and 15 chicken carcasses collected from a poultry abattoir, were speciated using a variety of phenotypic identification methods. All were tested using API Campy test strips and the 16-test (Preston) identification scheme developed for campylobacters. Fifty strains were selected for examination using a more comprehensive probabilistic identification scheme, and the identity of representative strains confirmed by protein profiling using SDS-PAGE. All 25 carcasses yielded Arcobacter butzleri. Three supermarket and 10 abattoir carcasses also carried A. cryaerophilus, and two abattoir carcasses carried A. skirrowii. The API Campy scheme proved unsatisfactory for identifying these strains: only 20 of 99 strains were accurately identified, all of which were A. cryaerophilus, the only Arcobacter sp. included in the database. Moreover, 76 of 99 strains were misidentified. The 16-test scheme identified all the arcobacter strains as A. cryaerophilus, since neither A. butzleri nor A. skirrowii had been described when the scheme was developed. The computer-assisted probabilistic scheme succeeded in identifying all but one strain, the identity of which was clarified by the use of SDS-PAGE. To our knowledge this is the first time that arcobacters other than A. butzleri have been reported in poultry meat or any other food of animal origin. Their high prevalence in poultry products may be of significance to public health.

The aims of this study were as follows: (i) to isolate Arcobacter spp. from the stool samples of patients with gastroenteritis; (ii) to identify them with molecular methods; (iii) to genotype them using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR; and (iv) to determine their antibiotic susceptibilities. For the study, a total of 3287 diarrhoeal stool samples submitted to the Microbiology Laboratory of the Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey, between 2010 and 2011 were analysed. Campylobacter blood-free selective medium supplemented with cefoperazone, amphotericin B and teicoplanin was used for isolation. Medium inoculated with stool samples was incubated microaerobically at 37 6C for 72-96 h. Phenotypic tests, a genusspecific PCR and a multiplex PCR were used to identify the arcobacters, whilst ERIC-PCR was used for genotyping and the antibiotic susceptibilities of the isolates were detected by E-test. Arcobacter spp. were isolated from nine of the 3287 samples. These nine isolates were identified as Arcobacter butzleri and all showed different ERIC-PCR profiles. All nine isolates were resistant to ampicillin and susceptible to gentamicin, tetracycline, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin. As far as is known, this is the first study in which A. butzleri has been isolated from human acute gastrointestinal infections in Turkey. According to these results, it is recommended that, when investigating the aetiology of infections of the digestive system in humans, Arcobacter spp. be considered for inclusion. The results of this study should contribute to our knowledge related to A. butzleri infections in humans. INTRODUCTIONThe genus Arcobacter is a member of the family Campylobacteraceae. Currently, the genus Arcobacter has a total of 15 recognized species: Arcobacter butzleri, Arcobacter cryaerophilus, Arcobacter skirrowii, Arcobacter nitrofigilis, Arcobacter cibarius, Arcobacter halophilus, Arcobacter mytili, Arcobacter thereius, Arcobacter marinus, Arcobacter trophiarum, Arcobacter defluvii, Arcobacter molluscorum, Arcobacter ellisi, Arcobacter bivalviorum and Arcobacter venerupis Figueras et al., 2011; Levican et al., 2012). Three species, namely A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus and A. skirrowii, have been associated with gastrointestinal infections (Burnens et al., 1992;Jiang et al., 2010;Vandamme et al., 1992a) and extra-intestinal invasive diseases (Lau et al., 2002;On et al., 1995;Yan et al., 2000). In addition, asymptomatic arcobacter carriage in type 2 diabetic patients has been reported (Fera et al., 2010). Because of its isolation from many human disease cases, A. butzleri is considered to be the most important species of the genus. Some studies have reported the isolation and molecular analyses of arcobacters from miscellaneous sources in Turkey (Atabay et al., 2003(Atabay et al., , 2008Aydin et al., 2007;Ertas et al., 2010). However, in human medicine, no studies have been conducted on arcobacters, except for one case report (Kayman et al., 2010).The current study was undertake...