A survey of campylobacter in animals

Abstract

SUMMARYA survey of Campylobacter species in the faeces or rectal contents of domestic animals was carried out using direct and enrichment culture methods. Campylobacters were isolated from 259 (31 00) of 846 faecal specimens. The highest isolation rate was found in pigs (66 0o); lower rates were found in cattle (24 0/s) and sheep (22 %). In pigs all the isolates were C. coli, in sheep and cattle about 7500 were C. jejuni. Only five isolations of C.fetus subsp.fetus were made, all from cattle. More pigs with diarrhoea had C. coli in their faeces than healthy pigs (770 vs 470), but such a clear difference in isolation rate between sick and healthy animals was not seen in cattle or sheep.The enrichment method increased the total isolation rate of C. jejuni and C. coli by 330, but for cattle specimens it increased it by 690 (from 6-5 00 to 21 00).However, the enrichment method failed to detect 160% of positive specimens (mainly C. coli), so direct and enrichment methods should be used for the culture of campylobacters from animal faeces. The results show that cattle, sheep and pigs constitute a large potential source of campylobacter infection for man.

Pet Dogs and Chicken Meat as Reservoirs ofCampylobacterspp. in Barbados

“…C. coli was the most common species isolated from pigs. This is consistent with the findings of most investigations of the carriage of campylobacters in swine (53,63,69,75). Nevertheless, there are also reports of a high prevalence of C. jejuni in pigs (32,91).…”

“…Our data are comparable with those of Rosef et al, who isolated Campylobacter from 0.8% of cows and 8.1% of sheep (75). However, there are several reports of higher isolation rates from cattle, ranging from 5% to 89.4% (38,39,53,63,83), and from sheep (53,73). The frequent overgrowth of our primary isolation plates with Aspergillus before the end of the 7-day incubation period may well have hindered the detection of Campylobacter strains present in cow or sheep feces, resulting in an underestimation of the carriage rate.…”

The seasonal variation of thermophilic campylobacters in beef cattle, dairy cattle and calves

“…Over the last two decades a wide variation in carriage rates in adult cattle has been found, 0·8% in Norway (Rosef et al 1983) and 21% and 23·5% in the UK (Bolton et al 1982b;Manzer and Dalziel 1985). More recent studies have reported rates of 19·5% carriage in adult cattle in Portugal (Cabrita et al 1992) and 46·7% in Japan (Giacoboni et al 1993).…”

Campylobacter jejuniin dairy cows and raw milk

“…This organism can be isolated readily from bovine faeces (Svedhem & Kaijser, 1981;Elegbe, 1983;Manser & Dalziel, 1985) and has been shown to cause bovine mastitis (Hutchinson et al 1985). However, many surveys have found the incidence of contaminated milk samples to be very low (Doyle & Roman, 1982;Oosteram et al 1982;Lovett, Francis & Hunt, 1983;de Boer, Hartog & Borst, 1984;Waterman, Park & Bramley, 1984).…”