Importance of the Farm Environment and Wildlife for Transmission of Campylobacter jejuni in A Pasture-Based Dairy Herd
Open Access
- 27 November 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in Microorganisms
- Vol. 8 (12), 1877
- https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8121877
Abstract
Cattle are an established reservoir of the foodborne bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Our six-month study aimed to evaluate sources and pathways governing long-term presence of C. jejuni in a pasture-based dairy herd. C. jejuni was detected in all sample types (soil, pasture, stock drinking water, bird, rodents and cow faeces). It was persistently detected from cow (54%; 49/90 samples) and bird (36%; 77/211) faeces. Genetic comparison of 252 C. jejuni isolates identified 30 Multi-Locus Sequence Types (ST). ST-61 and ST-42 were persistent in the herd and accounted for 43% of the cow isolates. They were also detected on pasture collected from fields both recently and not recently grazed, indicating that grazed pasture is an important pathway and reservoir for horizontal transmission among cows. ST-61 accounted for 9% of the bird isolates and was detected at four of the six sampling events, suggesting that bird populations might contribute to the cycling of ruminant-adapted genotypes on-farm. Overall, the results indicated that management of grazed pasture and supplementary feed contaminated by bird droppings could be targeted to effectively reduce transmission of C. jejuni to dairy herds, the farm environment and ultimately to humans.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- A large scale waterborne Campylobacteriosis outbreak, Havelock North, New ZealandJournal of Infection, 2020
- Spatio-temporal models to determine association between Campylobacter cases and environmentInternational Journal of Epidemiology, 2017
- Risk Factors for Salmonella, Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli and Campylobacter Occurrence in Primary Production of Leafy Greens and StrawberriesInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2015
- Global Epidemiology of Campylobacter InfectionClinical Microbiology Reviews, 2015
- Multilocus Sequence Typing Confirms Wild Birds as the Source of a Campylobacter Outbreak Associated with the Consumption of Raw PeasApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2014
- Common source outbreaks of Campylobacter infection in the USA, 1997–2008Epidemiology and Infection, 2012
- Consumption of raw vegetables and fruits: A risk factor for Campylobacter infectionsInternational Journal of Food Microbiology, 2010
- Urban–rural differences of age- and species-specific campylobacteriosis incidence, Hesse, Germany, July 2005 – June 2006Eurosurveillance, 2010
- Tracing the Source of CampylobacteriosisPLoS Genetics, 2008
- The Transmission of Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. to People Living or Working on Dairy Farms in New ZealandZoonoses and Public Health, 2008