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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2008, p. 3583-3590, Vol. 74, No. 11
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02491-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Campylobacter Populations in Wild Geese with Those in Starlings and Free-Range Poultry on the Same Farm{triangledown}

F. M. Colles,1 K. E. Dingle,2,3 A. J. Cody,2 and M. C. J. Maiden1*

Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3SY, United Kingdom,1 Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Oxford University, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom,2 Department of Microbiology, Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust, Level 6 Microbiology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom3

Received 5 November 2007/ Accepted 24 March 2008

Wild geese are a potential source of Campylobacter infection for humans and farm animals and have been implicated in at least two large waterborne disease outbreaks. There have been few investigations into the population biology of Campylobacter in geese, carriage rates are reported to vary (0 to 100%), and no genetic characterization of isolates has been performed. Fecal samples collected from wild geese in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, were culture positive for C. jejuni (50.2%) and C. coli (0.3%). The C. jejuni (n = 166) isolates were characterized by using multilocus sequence typing and were compared with isolates collected from free-range broiler chickens and wild starlings sampled at the same location. A total of 38 STs, six clonal complexes, and 23 flaA SVR nucleotide STs were identified. The ST-21 and ST-45 complexes (5.4% of isolates) were the only complexes to be identified among isolates from the geese and the other bird species sampled in the same location. These clonal complexes were also identified among human disease isolates collected in the same health care region. The results indicate that large numbers of wild geese carry Campylobacter; however, there was limited mixing of Campylobacter populations among the different sources examined, and the host source could be predicted with high probability from the allelic profile of a C. jejuni isolate. In conclusion, genotypes of C. jejuni isolated from geese are highly host specific, and a comparison with isolates from Oxfordshire cases of human disease revealed that while geese cannot be excluded as a source of infection for humans and farm animals, their contribution is likely to be minor.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3SY, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1865 271284. Fax: 44 1865 281275. E-mail: martin.maiden{at}zoology.oxford.ac.uk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 4 April 2008.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2008, p. 3583-3590, Vol. 74, No. 11
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02491-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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