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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2009, p. 4264-4272, Vol. 75, No. 13
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00168-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Clonal Population Structure and Antimicrobial Resistance of Campylobacter jejuni in Chicken Meat from Belgium{triangledown}

Ihab Habib,1,4* William G. Miller,2 Mieke Uyttendaele,3 Kurt Houf,1 and Lieven De Zutter1

Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke,1 Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium,3 Produce Safety and Microbiology Research Unit, USDA, ARS, WRRC, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, California 94710,2 Food Hygiene and Control Division, High Institute of Public Health (HIPH), Alexandria University, 165 El-Horrya Avenue, Alexandria, Egypt4

Received 24 January 2009/ Accepted 26 April 2009

Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most important causes of human diarrhea worldwide. In the present work, multilocus sequence typing was used to study the genotypic diversity of 145 C. jejuni isolates from 135 chicken meat preparations sampled across Belgium. Isolates were further typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and their susceptibilities to six antimicrobials were determined. Fifty-seven sequence types (STs) were identified; 26.8% of the total typed isolates were ST-50, ST-45, or ST-257, belonging to clonal complex CC-21, CC-45, or CC-257, respectively. One clonal group comprised 22% (32/145) of all isolates, originating from five different companies and isolated over seven sampling months. Additionally, 53.1% of C. jejuni isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, and 48.2% were resistant to tetracycline; 28.9% (42/145) of all isolates were resistant to both ciprofloxacin and tetracycline. The correlation between certain C. jejuni clonal groups and resistance to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline was notable. C. jejuni isolates assigned to CC-21 (n = 35) were frequently resistant to ciprofloxacin (65.7%) and tetracycline (40%); however, 90% (18/20) of the isolates assigned to CC-45 were pansusceptible. The present study demonstrates that certain C. jejuni genotypes recur frequently in the chicken meat supply. The results of molecular typing, combined with data on sample sources, indicate a possible dissemination of C. jejuni clones with high resistance to ciprofloxacin and/or tetracycline. Whether certain clonal groups are common in the environment and repeatedly infect Belgian broiler flocks or whether they have the potential to persist on farms or in slaughterhouses needs further investigation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium. Phone: 32 09 264 73 41. Fax: 32 09 264 74 91. E-mail: ihab.habib{at}ugent.be

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 1 May 2009.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2009, p. 4264-4272, Vol. 75, No. 13
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00168-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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