Detection of Campylobacter jejuni Strains in the Water Lines of a Commercial Broiler House and Their Relationship to the Strains That Colonized the Chickens

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni is frequently present in the intestinal tract of commercial broiler chickens, and their drinking water has been proposed to be an initial source of bacteria for newly hatched chicks. We studied three sequential commercial broiler flocks raised in a house from which we had cultured C. jejuni from the nipple waters prior to placement of the first flock. Campylobacter cells were detected by immunofluorescence in the biofilm of the drinking nipples during the weeks when the flock was colonized with C. jejuni but not during weeks when the birds were negative. Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from the drinking water during the growth of the first flock and was present in the birds from all three flocks. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) typing with primer OPA11 indicated that seven distinct strains were present within the broiler house. One strain found in drinking water was similar to a strain found in birds in the second flock; however, RAPD-PCR with primer HLW85 showed that the strains were not identical. These results suggest that although the watering system is a potential source of C. jejuni in broiler flocks, the waterborne strain in this study was not detected in the birds.

Does Campylobacter jejuni Form Biofilms in Food-Related Environments?

“…These growth conditions are different from those found in the water supplies and plumbing systems of animal husbandry facilities and processing plants where C. jejuni biofilms have been suggested to form (11,18,31). It is therefore important to investigate C. jejuni biofilm formation under flow conditions in order to understand the mechanisms that allow biofilm formation under dynamic conditions in the environment.…”

“…Contamination of retail poultry with C. jejuni occurs from the gastrointestinal tract of the animal during processing (9). Consumption of undercooked poultry and raw milk (10,11), as well as consumption of other foods that have been cross contaminated by animal products, is strongly associated with C. jejuni infections (12).…”

Drinking water as the source ofCampylobacter coliinfection in grandparent heavy breeders

“…Several studies have been conducted to prove whether contaminated groundwater was the source of Campylobacter spp. in poultry flocks, and most studies have shown evidence of the involvement of groundwater as a possible source of infection (Pearson et al, 1993;Stanley et al, 1998;Zimmer et al, 2003). Recently Ogden et al (2007), using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) as a molecular marker, have found the same C. jejuni sequence types both in water tanks and broiler farms, showing the possibility of water as a source of infection in broilers.…”

Campylobacter jejuniBiofilms Up-Regulated in the Absence of the Stringent Response Utilize a Calcofluor White-Reactive Polysaccharide

“…For C. jejuni, biofilms have only recently begun to be characterized at a molecular genetic level (35,36,63,65) but have been hypothesized as important both for in vivo colonization, as proposed for Salmonella (40,88), and for transmission and ex vivo survival, such as on the nipples of chicken water bottle feeders (76,88). Interestingly, all SR mutants in other bacteria published to date are defective for biofilm formation, indicating a relationship between these two stress response phenomena (10,30,42,71).…”