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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.02579-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in cattle in Finland and antimicrobial susceptibility of bovine Campylobacter jejuni strains

Finnish Food Safety Authority, Mustialankatu 3, FI-00790 Finland; Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene, FI-00014 University of Helsinki

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: marjaana.hakkinen{at}evira.fi.

	Abstract

The study investigated the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in Finnish cattle at slaughter and carcass contamination after slaughter. During the period January - December 2003, bovine rectal fecal samples (n = 952) and carcass surface samples (n= 948) from twelve out of fifteen Finnish slaughterhouses were examined. In total, campylobacters were detected in 31.1% of fecal samples and in 3.5% of carcass surface samples. C. jejuni was isolated from 19.5%, C. coli from 2.2% and presumptive C. hyointestinalis from 10.8% of fecal samples. Campylobacters were detected in 4.4% and 37.4% of the fecal samples examined both by direct culture and by enrichment (n = 730), respectively, suggesting a low level of campylobacters in the intestinal content. A slightly increasing trend was observed in the overall prevalence of campylobacters towards the end of summer and autumn. Seventeen different serotypes were detected among the fecal C. jejuni isolates using a set of 25 commercial antisera for serotyping heat-stable antigens (Penner) of C. jejuni by passive hemagglutination. The predominant serotypes, Pen2 and Pen4-complex, were isolated from 52% of the fecal samples. Subtyping by PFGE (SmaI) yielded 56 and 20 subtypes out of 330 fecal and 70 carcass C. jejuni isolates, respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration to ampicillin, enrofloxacin, erythromycin, gentamicin, nalidixic acid and oxytetracycline of 187 C. jejuni isolates was determined using a commercial broth microdilution method. Sixteen (9%) of the isolates were resistant to at least one of the antimicrobials tested. Resistance to nalidixic acid was most commonly detected (6%). No multiresistance was observed.

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