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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 625-628, Vol. 75, No. 3
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01912-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Quantifying Transmission of Campylobacter jejuni in Commercial Broiler Flocks{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Twan van Gerwe,1* Jeanette K. Miflin,2 Jillian M. Templeton,2 Annemarie Bouma,1 Jaap A. Wagenaar,3 Wilma F. Jacobs-Reitsma,4 Arjan Stegeman,1 and Don Klinkenberg1

Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80151, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands,1 Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (Queensland), Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Australia,2 Department of Infectious Disease and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80165, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands,3 Rikilt, Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 230, 6700 AE Wageningen, The Netherlands4

Received 18 August 2008/ Accepted 23 November 2008

Since meat from poultry colonized with Campylobacter spp. is a major cause of bacterial gastroenteritis, human exposure should be reduced by, among other things, prevention of colonization of broiler flocks. To obtain more insight into possible sources of introduction of Campylobacter into broiler flocks, it is essential to estimate the moment that the first bird in a flock is colonized. If the rate of transmission within a flock were known, such an estimate could be determined from the change in the prevalence of colonized birds in a flock over time. The aim of this study was to determine the rate of transmission of Campylobacter using field data gathered for 5 years for Australian broiler flocks. We used unique sampling data for 42 Campylobacter jejuni-colonized flocks and estimated the transmission rate, which is defined as the number of secondary infections caused by one colonized bird per day. The estimate was 2.37 ± 0.295 infections per infectious bird per day, which implies that in our study population colonized flocks consisting of 20,000 broilers would have an increase in within-flock prevalence to 95% within 4.4 to 7.2 days after colonization of the first broiler. Using Bayesian analysis, the moment of colonization of the first bird in a flock was estimated to be from 21 days of age onward in all flocks in the study. This study provides an important quantitative estimate of the rate of transmission of Campylobacter in broiler flocks, which could be helpful in future studies on the epidemiology of Campylobacter in the field.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 7, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands. Phone: (31) 30 2531248. Fax: (31) 30 2521887. E-mail: tvgerwe{at}gmail.com

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 1 December 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 625-628, Vol. 75, No. 3
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01912-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Thomas, M. E., Klinkenberg, D., Ejeta, G., Van Knapen, F., Bergwerff, A. A., Stegeman, J. A., Bouma, A. (2009). Quantification of Horizontal Transmission of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis Bacteria in Pair-Housed Groups of Laying Hens. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 6361-6366 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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