Drinking water as the source of Campylobacter coli infection in grandparent heavy breeders

Abstract

The aim of the present study was the molecular identification of a common source of infection of Campylobacter coli in two grandparent breeder farms. Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli were isolated from well water and cloacal swabs from grandparent chickens. Colonies were genotyped using restriction fragment length polymorphism-flaA gene, pulsed field gel electrophoresis and multi-locus sequence typing. The same genotype of C. coli was found in both farms and in the well from which drinking water was supplied to the farms. The well water was epidemiologically linked as the source of C. coli infection. The molecular identification for epidemiological source-tracking of C. coli in breeder farms could aid in combating the colonization of this pathogen and therefore to reduce their incidence in human campylobacteriosis.

Acknowledgements

The present study was supported in part by grant P.I. 02/26 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain). This publication used the Campylobacter Multi Locus Sequence Typing database developed by Keith Jolley and Man-Sue Chan from the University of Oxford. The authors gratefully thank Patricia Sánchez Barreno for her comments and suggestions, and Susana Pedraza Díaz for her critical revision of the manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Pérez-Boto

David Pérez-Boto and Francisco J. García-Peña contributed equally to this work