Human campylobacteriosis, an infection caused by the bacterium Campylobacter, is a major issue in the United States food system, especially for poultry products. According to the Center for Disease Control, campylobacterosis is estimated to affect over 2.4 million people annually. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli are 2 species responsible for the majority of campylobacterosis infections. Phenotypic and genotypic typing methods are often used to discriminate between bacteria at the species and subspecies level and are often used to identify pathogenic organisms, such as C. jejuni and C. coli. This review describes the design as well as advantages and disadvantages for 3 current phenotypic techniques (biotyping, serotyping, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis) and 6 genotypic techniques (multilocus sequence typing, PCR, pulse-field gel electrophoresis, ribotyping, flagellin typing, and amplified fragment length polymorphisms) for typing pathogenic Campylobacter spp.

Campylobacter spp. require a microaerophilic environment (80% N(2), 10% CO(2), 5% H(2), and 5% O(2)) for growth. Since the late 1800s, several systems for creating and maintaining specific microbial atmospheres have been developed and applied. The objective of this study was to evaluate Campylobacter jejuni growth by means of 3 commonly used gas-delivery systems for generating a microaerophilic environment: automated, gas-generating sachet, and plastic storage bag. Pure culture C. jejuni cells were suspended in Brucella broth and spread onto campy cefex agar plates. For the automated gas-delivery system, plates were positioned in a Mart anaerobic jar and flushed with a microaerophilic gas mixture using an Anoxomat Mart II system (Mart Microbiology B. V., Netherlands). For the sachet samples, plates were placed in a Mart anaerobic jar and 3 Gaspak EZ campy sachets (Becton Dickinson and Company, Franklin Lakes, NJ) were activated to induce a microaerophilic gas environment. The plates placed in plastic storage bags were flushed with a microaerophilic gas mixture from a premixed tank. For all 3 systems, plates were placed in a low-temperature incubator at 42°C for 24 h. After 24 h, plates were removed from the incubator and colonies were counted. The entire experiment was repeated 5 times. Results indicated no significant difference in colony counts among the gas-delivery systems tested, but colonies grown under the sachet-generated environment were smaller than colonies in the other 2 methods. Smaller colonies could have resulted from the type of media used or the length of time the plates were incubated. In conclusion, all 3 gas-delivery methods were able to produce similar Campylobacter growth results. Initial and long-term costs of equipment, as well as laboratory space availability, may be influential when choosing a gas-delivery method for generating a microaerophilic environment.

In 2009, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the development of new pathogen reduction performance standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter both on-farm and in the processing plant. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and distribution o f Campylobacter in 3 newly constructed broiler houses for the first 4 flocks placed. Litter and fecal samples were collected from each house at 0, 28 and 48 d of production. Samples were serially diluted and spread onto Campy Cefex agar plates. Two 40 mL water samples were collected each production day and filtered through a 0.45 µm membrane before being placed onto a Campy Cefex agar plate. All plates were purged with a microaerophilic gas and incubated for 36 h at 42°C. Individual plates were screened for characteristic Campylobacter colonies and suspect colonies were confirmed using a latex agglutination kit. An additional 50 g of litter was collected from the evaporative cooling inlets, middle and tunnel ventilation fans to determine litter moisture and pH. Inside and outside temperatures were also collected. Out of 2300 litter, 900 fecal and 45 water samples, only 5, 6 and 1 of the collected samples, respectively, were confirmed Campylobacter positive. The middle of the house contained a higher litter moisture level (37%) than the evaporative cooling inlet end (33%) and tunnel ventilation fan end (34%) (p<0.05). Litter pH was not different across days, locations or flocks. Temperature averaged 26.8 C inside and 27.6 C outside. In conclusion, the newly o o constructed houses did not show a high prevalence of Campylobacter. Litter moisture was at levels conducive for Campylobacter growth. The high litter pH and low temperatures, along with other on-farm management strategies and the fact the broiler houses were brand new, may have suppressed Campylobacter's ability to colonize the litter.