Antimicrobial susceptibilities of Campylobacter strains isolated from food animals in Belgium

Abstract

Campylobacter spp. are a frequent cause of diarrhoea in man, originating mostly from poultry. It has been suggested that the veterinary use of antibiotics is largely responsible for resistance in human isolates, particularly to quinolones. During a 6 month period from June to December 1998, 677 Campylobacter isolates were obtained from healthy poultry and pigs. Samples were taken at Belgian slaughterhouses. Species identification was performed by biochemical tests, multiplex PCR and SDS-PAGE of whole-cell proteins. The in vitro susceptibility to six antimicrobial drugs was determined by the agar dilution method. Campylobacter jejuni was found more often in poultry than Campylobacter coli (79% C. jejuni versus 21% C. coli). In pigs the situation was reversed (6 versus 94%). Erythromycin resistance was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in C. coli, particularly in C. coli isolated from pigs (67.2%). Alarmingly high rates of resistance to ciprofloxacin were also noted, particularly for C. coli from broilers (62.1%). The latter indicates that resistance of Campylobacter in humans could derive from animals.

Public Health Hazard of Zoonotic Campylobacter jejuni Reference to Egyptian Regional and Seasonal Variations

“…Several studies examined thermophilic Campylobacter in poultry and the findings indicated prevalence ranges of the Campylobacter from 3-98% with C. jejuni as the main isolates (Kapperud et al, 2003;Cardinale et al, 2003). Van Looveren et al (2001) found that among 677 Campylobacter isolates from broiler carcasses from Belgian slaughter houses, 79% was identified as C. jejuni.…”

Campylobacter

“…The majority of cases of clinical Campylobacter enteritis are sufficiently mild or self-limiting not to require antimicrobial chemotherapy [6]. Nevertheless, in severe or recurrent cases where antibiotics are required, susceptibility testing is important to ensure appropriate and timely treatment [13,134,179]. Serious systemic infection may also be treated with an aminoglycoside such as gentamicin [153].…”

Diarrheal illness among deployed U.S. military personnel during Operation Bright Star 2001—Egypt

“…For the Enterobacteriaceae, biochemical identification was performed (API 20E system, Analytab Products, New York, NY). Hippurate hydrolysis was used to differentiate the Campylobacter isolates into Campylobacter jejuni (hippurate positive) and non-jejuni (hippurate negative) (Van Looveren et al, 2001). For the identification of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), five individual E. coli-like colonies were assayed for the production of heat-labile toxin (LT) and heat-stable toxin (ST), using direct and indirect GM 1 ELISA (Svennerholm and Wiklund, 1983;Sanchez et al, 1990).…”