Identification of genes associated with environmental persistence in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolates from processing in a broiler abattoir

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the htr A, htr B and ppk 1 genes -all of which are related to environmental persistence- in C. jejuni and C. coli isolates obtained from abattoir samples at the arrival of broilers (initial stage) and in meat products after processing (final stage). A total of 119 DNA extracts (55 C. jejuni and 64 C. coli ) were included in the study . Identification of genes was performed by conventional PCR (one for each gene). The overall prevalence was 40.3%, 93.3% and 68.9% for the htr A, htr B and ppk 1 genes, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found ( p < 0.05) between prevalence of C. jejuni and C. coli for all three genes. In C. coli the prevalence was significantly higher for the htr A ( p = 0.007) and htr B ( p = 0.015) genes, while ppk 1 gene prevalence was significantly higher in C. jejuni ( p < 0.001). In addition, statistically significant increase in the frequency of htr A ( p = 0.007) and htr B ( p = 0.013) genes in the final product compared to broilers on arrival at the abattoir was observed in C. jejuni , but not in C. coli. These results suggest that htr A and htr B genes are involved in environmental persistence of Campylobacter jejuni.

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