Molecular Epidemiology and Characterization of Campylobacter spp. Isolated from Wild Bird Populations in Northern England

Abstract

Campylobacter infections have been reported at prevalences ranging from 2 to 50% in a range of wild bird species, although there have been few studies that have investigated the molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter spp. Consequently, whether wild birds are a source of infection in humans or domestic livestock or are mainly recipients of domestic animal strains and whether separate cycles of infection occur remain unknown. To address these questions, serial cross-sectional surveys of wild bird populations in northern England were carried out over a 2-year period. Fecal samples were collected from 2,084 wild bird individuals and screened for the presence of Campylobacter spp. A total of 56 isolates were recovered from 29 birds sampled at 15 of 167 diverse locales. Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter lari, and Campylobacter coli were detected by PCR, and the prevalences of different Campylobacter spp. in different avian families ranged from 0% to 33%. Characterization of 36 C. jejuni isolates by multilocus sequence typing revealed that wild birds carry both livestock-associated and unique strains of C. jejuni. However, the apparent absence of unique wild bird strains of C. jejuni in livestock suggests that the direction of infection is predominantly from livestock to wild birds. C. lari was detected mainly in wild birds sampled in an estuarine or coastal habitat. Fifteen C. lari isolates were analyzed by macrorestriction pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, which revealed genetically diverse populations of C. lari in Eurasian oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) and clonal populations in magpies (Pica pica).

Prevalence in Bulk Tank Milk and Epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni in Dairy Herds in Northern Italy

“…In particular, ST-220 and ST-2209, detected in our study four and five times, respectively, have been associated with pigeons (32). Only one strain belonged to a different MLST profile: ST-45 (CC-45), a genotype distributed widely in terms of hosts and ecologic niche (34) and already described in wild birds (23,33).…”

Molecular Detection of Campylobacter spp. in California Gull (Larus californicus) Excreta

“…For example, using culturing techniques, Whelan et al (35) reported that two-thirds of the herring gulls (Larus argentatus) tested were positive to Campylobacter spp., with C. laridis as the dominant species (55%), followed by C. jejuni (30%) and C. coli (15%). In contrast, out of 13 fecal strains tested, Hughes et al (17) identified one strain as C. lari and no C. jejuni or C. coli strains in black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) using different functional and ribosomal-gene (i.e., 16 and 23S rRNA gene) PCR assays. Based on previous culture estimations, Campylobacter has been estimated to range from 3.0 ϫ10 3 to 1.7 ϫ 10 7 CFU/g (wet weight) in the ring-billed gull (L. delawarensis) droppings (22), with lower estimates from herring gull and common black-headed gull (L. ridibundus) excreta (1.8 ϫ10 2 to 4.9 ϫ 10 6 CFU/g and from 7.4 ϫ 10 2 to 1.7 ϫ 10 5 CFU/g, respectively) (9).…”

Comprehensive Detection and Discrimination of Campylobacter Species by Use of Confocal Micro-Raman Spectroscopy and Multilocus Sequence Typing

“…are widespread in the environment, members of this genus are ecologically diverse, clinical cases are sporadic, and associated outbreaks are rare. These factors make epidemiology and source tracking challenging (19,20,29,69). To date, a variety of methods have been used to identify Campylobacter isolates to the species level.…”