Campylobacter in small ruminants at slaughter: prevalence, pulsotypes and antibiotic resistance

The present study aimed to address the prevalence, pulsotypes, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Campylobacter species present in sheep and goat carcasses at slaughter. In total, 851 samples were collected (343 meat surfaces, 282 ileum contents, 226 liver surfaces) and 835 Campylobacter isolates were detected in 274 out of 343 carcasses (116 kids, 110 lambs, 63 goats and 54 sheep). The contamination rates per carcass category were 78.4% for kids, 94.5% for lambs, 63.5% for goats, and 72.2% for sheep. On average, 30% of the intestinal content samples and more than 70% of carcass and liver surfaces yielded the presence of campylobacters. Multiplex-PCR and RFLP analysis identified Campylobacter coli as the most prevalent species (76.2%) followed by Campylobacter jejuni (21.4%), albeit 2.4% of selected colonies yielded the concurrent presence of both these species. Macrorestriction profiling by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was applied in order to characterise a subset of isolates. SmaI-PFGE successfully clustered 222 isolates in 82 SmaI-PFGE types indicating high heterogeneity among the campylobacter isolates (67 types among 174C. coli isolates and 15 types among 48C. jejuni isolates). No carcass-type (lamb, kid, sheep, and goat) specific PFGE clusters were recognised since there was a general overlapping of PFGE patterns regarding ovine and caprine isolates. Multiple pulsotypes were simultaneously present on single carcasses in the majority of tested animals. PFGE provided data regarding the potential routes of meat and liver contamination such as spillage of faecal material and cross-contamination during slaughter. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Campylobacter isolates (n=240), determined by disk diffusion method, revealed resistance to tetracycline (47.9%) followed by streptomycin (22.9%) and ciprofloxacin along with nalidixic acid (18.3%). Isolates exhibited low resistance to erythromycin (2.5%) and were susceptible to gentamicin. The findings of the present study confirm the contamination of sheep and goats at slaughter with thermophilic campylobacters and underline their potential input in the epidemiology of human campylobacteriosis.