Molecular Epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni Isolates from Wild-Bird Fecal Material in Children's Playgrounds

Abstract

In many countries relatively high notification rates of campylobacteriosis are observed in children under 5 years of age. Few studies have considered the role that environmental exposure plays in the epidemiology of these cases. Wild birds inhabit parks and playgrounds and are recognized carriers of Campylobacter, and young children are at greater risk of ingesting infective material due to their frequent hand-mouth contact. We investigated wild-bird fecal contamination in playgrounds in parks in a New Zealand city. A total of 192 samples of fresh and dried fecal material were cultured to determine the presence of Campylobacter spp. Campylobacter jejuni isolates were also characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and the profiles obtained were compared with those of human isolates. C. jejuni was isolated from 12.5% of the samples. MLST identified members of clonal complexes ST-45, ST-682, and ST-177; all of these complexes have been recovered from wild birds in Europe. PFGE of ST-45 isolates resulted in profiles indistinguishable from those of isolated obtained from human cases in New Zealand. Members of the ST-177 and ST-682 complexes have been found in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the United Kingdom, and these birds were common in playgrounds investigated in New Zealand in this study. We suggest that feces from wild birds in playgrounds could contribute to the occurrence of campylobacteriosis in preschool children. Further, the C. jejuni isolates obtained in this study belonged to clonal complexes associated with wild-bird populations in the northern hemisphere and could have been introduced into New Zealand in imported wild garden birds in the 19th century.

Campylobacter sequence typing databases: applications and future prospects

“…Clonal complex Total different studies including those from the UK and Luxembourg Grove-White et al, 2011;Kwan et al, 2008a;Ragimbeau et al, 2008;Sproston et al, 2011); and (iii) the ST-177 and ST-682 complexes, which are common amongst wild starlings in both the UK and New Zealand French et al, 2009), and are also isolated from other environmental samples in the UK and Iceland (Dingle et al, 2002;Magnú sson et al, 2011).…”

The Evolution ofCampylobacter jejuniandCampylobacter coli

“…It is, however, important to note that such isolates are by no means representative of natural Campylobacter populations, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that much of the diversity present among the Campylobacters is in strains that colonize wild animals. Increasing numbers of novel genotypes are being found as Campylobacter populations are analyzed in different animal species, especially wild birds French et al 2009); these populations undoubtedly contain many as-yet-undescribed lineages. Most human disease isolates from cases of gastroenteritis in countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, are C. jejuni, which typically accounts for 90% of cases in these settings, with the remaining 10% of cases mostly caused by C. coli.…”

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.…”