Lipooligosaccharide locus classes and putative virulence genes among chicken and human Campylobacter jejuni isolates

Campylobacter cause morbidity and considerable economic loss due to hospitalization and post infectious sequelae such as reactive arthritis, Guillain Barré- and Miller Fischer syndromes. Such sequelae have been linked to C. jejuni harboring sialic acid structures in their lipooligosaccharide (LOS) layer of the cell wall. Poultry is an important source of human Campylobacter infections but little is known about the prevalence of sialylated C. jejuni isolates and the extent of transmission of such isolates to humans.

Genotypes of C. jejuni isolates from enteritis patients were compared with those of broiler chicken with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), to study the patterns of LOS biosynthesis genes and other virulence associated genes and to what extent these occur among Campylobacter genotypes found both in humans and chickens. Chicken and human isolates generally had similar distributions of the putative virulence genes and LOS locus classes studied. However, there were significant differences regarding LOS locus class of PFGE types that were overlapping between chicken and human isolates and those that were distinct to each source.

The study highlights the prevalence of virulence associated genes among Campylobacter isolates from humans and chickens and suggests possible patterns of transmission between the two species.