Prevalence and characterization of hippurate-negative Campylobacter jejuni in King County, Washington

A total of 593 strains of thermophilic Campylobacter species were isolated either from humans with diarrhea or from poultry in King County, Washington. Of these strains, 98 (52 hippurate-positive strains and all 46 of the hippurate-negative strains) were selected for further phenotypic characterization and genetic classification. Hippurate hydrolysis, the test typically used to differentiate Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli, did not always correlate with the genetic classification. All hippurate-positive strains were classified as C. jejuni. Of the hippurate-negative strains, 20% were C. jejuni, 78% were C. coli, and 2% were C. laridis. Assuming that the remaining hippurate-positive strains were all C. jejuni, then hippurate-negative C. jejuni represented a small percentage (9 of 556 or 1.6%) of C. jejuni strains but a significant percentage (9 of 46 or 20%) of hippurate-negative strains. This finding suggests that hippurate hydrolysis should not be used as the sole criterion for differentiating thermophilic Campylobacter species, particularly when describing the disease states associated with these organisms.