Prevalence and Characterization of Campylobacter jejuni Isolated from Retail Chicken in Tianjin, China

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni is an important foodborne pathogen worldwide; however, there is a lack of information on the prevalence and antibiotic-resistant profile of C. jejuni in the People's Republic of China. We determined the prevalence and characteristics of C. jejuni on the retail level in Tianjin, one of the five national central cities in China. A total of 227 samples of chicken wings, legs, and breasts were collected from supermarkets and wet markets; 42 of these samples were confirmed to be positive for Campylobacter contamination. The contamination rates of C. jejuni and other Campylobacter species were 13.7% (31 of 227 samples) and 5.7% (13 of 227 samples), respectively. A group of 31 C. jejuni isolates was subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. All (100%) the selected isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid; 77.4% were resistant to tetracycline, 67.7% to doxycycline, 35.5% to gentamicin, 25.8% to clindamycin and florfenicol, 19.4% to chloramphenicol, and 12.9% to erythromycin and azithromycin. A remarkably high proportion (41.9%) of multidrug-resistant isolates was identified. Multilocus sequence typing was conducted to study the population structure of the C. jejuni strains and their relationship to human isolates. The correlation between antimicrobial resistance traits and certain sequence types (STs) or clonal complexes was determined as well. A great genetic diversity of poultry isolates was identified, with 11 STs belonging to 6 clonal complexes and 11 singleton STs. The novel STs accounted for 40.9% (n = 9) of the 22 STs. ST-21, ST-353, ST-354, ST-443, ST-607, and ST-828 complexes had been previously identified from human isolates. This study revealed an extensive level of antimicrobial resistance and genetic diversity in C. jejuni isolated from chicken products in Tianjin, highlighting the necessity of performing enforced interventions to reduce Campylobacter prevalence in China.

Prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and virulence of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from chicken meat

“…In this study, 60 (75%) C. jejuni isolates were found resistant to tetracycline, the results corroborate with those reported by Nguyen et al (), whereas, Ma et al, reported high rate (77.4%) of tetracycline resistance in C. jejuni isolates. C. jejuni isolates (38.75%) were found resistant to ciprofloxacin, this result was in agreement with previous reports (Gblossi Bernadette et al, ).…”

“…All the isolates of C. jejuni were found sensitive to chloramphenicol and this result was in accordance with Guyard‐Nicodème et al (), whereas, Ma et al, reported 19.4% resistance of C. jejuni to ciprofloxacin.…”

“…Guyard‐Nicodème et al, reported 64.5% prevalence of C. jejuni in chicken meat. Some research studies reported lower prevalence of C. jejuni in chicken meat than the current study such as; 19.56% (de Moura et al, ), 13.7% (Ma et al, ), and 13.3% (Hara‐Kudo et al, ).…”

Molecular and epidemiologyical analysis of a Campylobacter jejuni outbreak in China, 2018

“…The national surveillance data from 20 provinces in China demonstrated that the prevalence and risk assessment of C. jejuni in Chicken was relatively high [27,28]. The prevalence of C. jejuni in chicken meat was reported as 13.7% (31/227) in Tianjin [29] and 17.2% (52/302) in central China [23]. Handling and consumption of chicken meat are the major risk factors for human Campylobacteriosis [30].…”

Campylobacter in food production chain in Vojvodina province (Serbia)

“…The overall incidence of 64.8 cases per 100,000 population was reported in EU countries in 2017. It was the second most common food borne illness in the USA (EFSA and ECDC, 2018;Ma et al, 2017).…”