Occurrence and molecular characterization of reptilian Campylobacter fetus strains isolated in Taiwan

The number of people who raise reptiles as pets has increased, but information about zoonotic Campylobacter carried by reptiles is limited. A survey of zoonotic Campylobacter species isolated from reptiles was undertaken to understand the possibility of this zoonotic bacterial pathogen causing human infection. A total of 179 fresh reptile fecal samples were collected from human-raised, pet shop and wild reptiles to survey the Campylobacter species. Basic biochemical reactions and 16S rRNA gene sequencing were used to identify the Campylobacter species. In the 179 fecal samples, 6.7% (12/179) were Campylobacter positive; all positive samples were identified as Campylobacter fetus. For the different reptile species, the prevalence of C. fetus in turtles was 9.7% (10/103), 1.7% (1/56) in lizards and 5.0% (1/20) in snakes. Based on published C. fetus subspecies-specific sequences, 9 of the C. fetus bacterial isolates were identified as C. fetus subsp. fetus by multiplex PCR. In addition, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to analyze the Campylobacter epidemiology and population genetics. Most of the C. fetus strains isolated from the reptiles were genetically distinct from classical mammalian C. fetus. Only the new type of ST-43, isolated from Chelonoidis carbonaria (turtle), was closely related to mammalian strains. Strain Campy-pet-3 possesses a urease activity in this study is the first to be described in C. fetus and this strain is the only one of lizard origin. This study provides the first information of Campylobacter species distribution in reptilian feces and supports the possibility of zoonotic Campylobacter infectious diseases caused by reptiles.