Campylobacter jejuni in black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus): prevalence, genotypes, and influence on C. jejuni epidemiologyShow others and affiliations
2002 (English)In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology, ISSN 0095-1137, E-ISSN 1098-660X, Vol. 40, no 12, p. 4594-4602Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Campylobacteriosis is a zoonotic disease in which birds have been suggested to play an important role as a reservoir. We investigated the prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni in black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) in southern Sweden with the aim of examining the nature of C. jejuni infection in this bird species. Birds were sampled in four sampling series each year during 1999 (n = 419) and 2000 (n = 365). Longitudinally sampled C. jejuni isolates from individual gulls were subjected to macrorestriction profiling (MRP) by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to investigate the genotypical stability during the natural course of infection. Furthermore, a subset (n = 76) of black-headed gull isolates was compared to isolates from broiler chickens (n = 38) and humans (n = 56) originating from the same geographic area. We found a pronounced seasonal variation in C. jejuni carriage, with the highest rates found in late autumn. MRP similarities were higher between isolates of human and broiler chicken origin, than between those of wild bird origin and either of the other two hosts. However, identical MRPs were found in two gull isolates and one human isolate after digestion with two restriction enzymes, strongly indicating that they may have been colonized by the same clone of C. jejuni. The MRPs most prevalent in gull isolates did not occur among isolates from humans and broiler chickens, suggesting the existence of a subpopulation of C. jejuni adapted to species-specific colonization or environmental survival.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2002. Vol. 40, no 12, p. 4594-4602
National Category
Microbiology in the medical area
Research subject
Culinary Arts and Meal Science; Microbiology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-44048DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.12.4594-4602.2002ISI: 000179631500032PubMedID: 12454158Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-0036898117OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-44048DiVA, id: diva2:800517
2015-04-062015-04-062018-01-11Bibliographically approved