Species diversity of campylobacteria in a wild bird community in Sweden

Abstract

Aims: To analyse the occurrence and host species distribution of campylobacteria species in shorebirds, geese and cattle on grazed coastal meadows in Sweden. Methods and Results: Species identification was performed through a polyphasic approach, incorporating Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) profiling, 16S RNA gene sequence analysis together with extensive phenotypic characterization. From 247 sampled birds and 71 cattle, we retrieved 113 urease positive thermophilic Campylobacter (UPTC) and 16 Campylobacter jejuni ssp. jejuni isolates. Furthermore, 18 isolates of Helicobacter canadensis, and five isolates that potentially represent a new genus of micro‐aerophilic, spiral and Gram‐negative bacteria were isolated. The distribution of bacterial species on hosts was uneven: all H. canadensis isolates were retrieved from geese, while all but one of the Campylobacter lari UPTC isolates were found in shorebirds. AFLP type distribution of Camp. lari UPTC isolates among individual, resampled and breeding‐paired Redshank birds generally indicated a constant shift in strain populations over time and absence of geographical clustering. Conclusions: The large number of isolated campylobacteria, including species that are zoonotic enteropathogens, indicates that these wild birds potentially may serve as reservoirs of human infections. However, despite a common environment, the different host species largely carried their own campylobacteria populations, indicating that cross‐species transmission is rare. Significance and Impact of the Study: Our study is one of few that provide data on the occurrence of campylobacteria in wild animals, adding information on the ecology and epidemiology of micro‐organisms that are of public health concern.

Intestinal Microbiota and Species Diversity of Campylobacter and Helicobacter spp. in Migrating Shorebirds in Delaware Bay

“…were associated with red knots than the other two bird species (Table 2), but more than 70% of sequences in epsilonproteobacterial clone libraries retrieved from red knots were classified as nonpathogenic species (Table 3). Pathogenic Campylobacter species have been detected frequently in waterfowl, such as gulls, Canada geese, Whistling swans, sandhill cranes, and snow geese (20,21,22). Lu et al (21) reported that most Campylobacter sequences identified from gull excreta were novel, whereas fewer than 2% of isolates were classified as C. jejuni and C. lari.…”

“…It should be noted that other studies have shown that birds are reservoirs of Campylobacter spp. (19), and that as a group these bacteria may be part of some birds' commensal microbiota (20). While there is no evidence of Campylobacter strains pathogenic to birds, several studies have detected species considered pathogenic to humans, such as C. jejuni, C. coli, and C. lari (21,22).…”

Phylogenetic Diversity and Molecular Detection of Bacteria in Gull Feces

“…As waterfowl are an important source of pollution in beach areas (17,26) and can serve as potential reservoirs of human infections (13,36), the assays described herein would be useful in health risk-based analyses (i.e., epidemiological studies and quantitative microbial risk studies) of nonhuman fecal pollu- on May 7, 2018 by guest http://aem.asm.org/ tion in recreational waters. Additionally, having gull-specific markers in the fecal source-tracking toolbox will help beach managers better assess potential causes of beach postings beyond familiar fecal pollution sources such as municipal wastewater and therefore implement remediation practices that target the most relevant sources of pollution.…”

Development and Evaluation of a Quantitative PCR Assay Targeting Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) Fecal Pollution

“…Bacterial and viral pathogens have been isolated from different species of birds, and examples of their zoonotic transmission have been documented (14,15,22,24,26,28,35,36), although the overall frequency of zoonotic transmission of human pathogens by avian species is still poorly understood. For example, while a high prevalence of campylobacters in gull excreta (i.e., 45% positive in 159 fecal samples) was previously observed (22), the low occurrence of pathogenic campylobacter species is considered to represent a relatively low level of risk for human infection (32).…”