Prevalence in Bulk Tank Milk and Epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni in Dairy Herds in Northern Italy
DNA, Bacterial
0301 basic medicine
2. Zero hunger
Animals; Campylobacter Infections; Campylobacter jejuni; Cattle; Columbidae; DNA, Bacterial; Enterobacteriaceae; Feces; Genotype; Italy; Milk; Molecular Epidemiology; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Prevalence
Molecular Epidemiology
Genotype
Polymerase Chain Reaction
3. Good health
Campylobacter jejuni
Feces
03 medical and health sciences
Milk
Enterobacteriaceae
Italy
Campylobacter Infections
Prevalence
Animals
Cattle
Columbidae
Multilocus Sequence Typing
DOI:
10.1128/aem.03784-13
Publication Date:
2014-01-11T04:25:57Z
AUTHORS (8)
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
Thermotolerant
Campylobacter
spp. are frequently the cause of human gastroenteritis and have assumed more importance in Italy following the increased consumption of raw milk. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence and genotypes of
Campylobacter
spp. in dairy herds and to investigate the possible sources of bulk milk contamination. Bulk milk from dairy herds (
n
= 282) was cultured for
Campylobacter
spp. and
Enterobacteriaceae
. At three
Campylobacter jejuni
-positive farms, bovine feces, pigeon intestines, milk, and water points were also investigated. Isolates were identified by PCR and genotyped using multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
C. jejuni
was detected in 34 (12%) bulk milk samples. The strains belonged to 14 sequence types, and the most common clonal complexes were CC-21, CC-48, and CC-403. No association was demonstrated between the presence of
C. jejuni
and high levels of
Enterobacteriaceae
in bulk milk. At the three farms examined,
C. jejuni
was isolated from bovine feces (25/82 [30.5%]), pigeon intestines (13/60 [21.7%]), bulk milk (10/24 [41.7%]), and water points (4/16 [25%]). MLST revealed lineages that were common between milk and bovine feces but distinct between cattle and pigeons. In one herd,
C. jejuni
with the same genotype was isolated repeatedly from bulk milk and a cow with an udder infection. Our results showed a high prevalence of
C. jejuni
in bulk milk and suggested that udder excretion, in addition to fecal matter, may be a route of bulk milk contamination. MLST analysis indicated that pigeons are probably not relevant for the transmission of
C. jejuni
to cattle and for milk contamination.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Coming soon ....
REFERENCES (34)
CITATIONS (51)
EXTERNAL LINKS
PlumX Metrics
RECOMMENDATIONS
FAIR ASSESSMENT
Coming soon ....
JUPYTER LAB
Coming soon ....